


50

by Aviantei



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ample use of flashbacks, Like just an indulgent AU, Multi, Sometimes you gotta deal with your self-esteem issues by fighting monsters, Still fantasy but not the same plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-01 04:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 47,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21372373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviantei/pseuds/Aviantei
Summary: [AU] So Roxas has this whole deal where he's trying to be a hero. Axel has this whole deal where he used to be a hero—until Roxas abandoned him. Reah has this whole deal where her friends always abandoned her—so she decided to abandon everyone else instead. In which, Reah discovers a new world, Axel learns he doesn't have to be alone, and Roxas fights to recover what he never really lost.
Kudos: 1





	1. Act I, Scene I

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction was originally posted on fanfiction.net on September 16, 2015, and it's currently still ongoing. I'm pretty sure I had some sort of weird dream, and that gave me the baseline settings for this. I've kind of just been exploring it and seeing where the hell it goes.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene I: “Looks like most of the floors are pretty clear today.”

* * *

“Heartless,” Reah murmured, her feet positioned on Roxas’s dashboard. He hated it when she did that, but he was too nice to put his foot down for the necessary amount of time to actually convince her not to. So, using the dashboard as a footrest remained a habit. “And Nobodies.” Sighing, Reah crushed the pop can in her hand, dropping it to the floor. Bless his heart, Roxas played the good driver and didn’t look away from the road. “Don’t you think those names are kind of cruel? I know they’re not perfect beings, but still.”

“What I think,” Roxas said, his voice utterly even, “is that you’re going to clean up the car once we’re done here.” Reah pouted, but ended up glancing at the pile of take-out trash and empty Ziploc bags that pooled underneath the passenger’s seat, like a very sloppy dragon’s horde. The car slowed down as they approached a red light, and finally Roxas looked to scowl at his partner. “Seriously, this isn’t a dump, you know. And get your feet off the dash!”

Reah dropped her legs down, the sound of paper and cardboard crumbling underneath her soles following. “Eyes on the road,” she quipped, noticing the light changing back to green. The sky was cloudy, like it was going to rain, but it never did. Roxas obeyed, turning to the right. Knowing that she’d just get lost, Reah went back to ignoring the car’s progress. “Besides, I feed you, too, you know. It’s not like I’m completely heartless.”

Roxas grimaced. “Did you just…?”

Reah snickered, folding her arms behind her head to stare at the ceiling. It was the same as every other time she decided to look up in Roxas’s car, tan and synthetic fabric all the way. “You know, you could just tell me when I make a lame joke.”

The boy only sighed, his eyes intent on the road. Reah couldn’t see things the way he did, but she knew he was scanning the surroundings, trying to find an opening. Somewhere, there was a sign that signaled a spot where people could _slip_, and that would take them to where they needed to go. Still, they had been driving around for at least thirty minutes, and there hadn’t been any luck so far.

Reah was getting _antsy_, and she didn’t like it.

“Is it not going to show up today?” she asked. In all the time she had been with Roxas, it had never happened, but there was a chance. Roxas’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, and creases appeared in the fabric of his gloves. “I’m sorry,” Reah immediately apologized. “I know that the clouds make it hard to see.”

“Did you check the gear?” Roxas asked, his voice clipped. He always got like this when it was time to go, but Reah didn’t like it. In fact, she hated it. When people got cold and distant…that was the sort of behavior that she had wanted to escape. And to see someone like Roxas—who was normally so cheerful and kind—act like that just hurt all the more.

Reah settled her hands in her lap, avoiding Roxas’s eyes even more than before. “Yeah. I had a free period earlier, so I—Jesus Christ, a little _warning_!”

Roxas had pulled the car into a sharp turn, and inertia had done its work in smacking Reah’s face against the passenger window. In the backseat, the bags of gear made a _thump_ as they hit against the door. The girl went to protest more, but for a moment, the air was sucked out of her lungs, and by the time Reah got it back, she knew there was no point in continuing.

The car braked to a stop, and Roxas practically threw himself out the driver’s door. Reah took a moment to make sure she could stand properly, then stepped out as well, a hand on the top of the car door. The familiar clatters of zippers and metal _clink_ing as Roxas armed himself up with gear sounded as Reah stared at the challenge above them.

The castle towered up into the sky, looking positively gothic, its shadow sticking out against the night sky. Almost comically, the ever full moon peaked out from behind a tower, looking skewered, and the illumination it provided was the blood. The only thing missing from the scene was some vampire bats, and then they’d be set.

Not wanting to get on the bad side of Roxas’s temper, Reah opened the door to the backseat, preparing her gear as well.

* * *

The inside of the castle was just as stereotypically black and white horror film as the outside, the walls, floor, and ceiling composed of large concrete bricks. Spider webs were in all the right corners, and even torches lined the walls. _Torches!_ It wasn’t like electricity wasn’t a proper option. The town just down the hill had just as good and sometime better technology as the dimension Reah and Roxas had just crossed over from.

Yeah, the damn thing was even on a hill. Overshadowing a small town nonetheless. Thinking about it critically, Reah wanted to cry.

As always, Roxas took point, his keyblade at the ready. Reah didn’t quite understand how the weapon worked, even after watching Roxas defeat enemy after enemy with it, but she didn’t complain. The strange sword(?) had saved her before, plus it made the idea of conquering the castle actually seem _obtainable_, not just some offhanded dream.

The castle had never done anything to the villagers, but that didn’t make it any less harmful in the world. Each floor contained its own myriad of monsters, and, even if defeated, they would eventually come back. That alone was suspicious enough, but the monsters were tough, too, so no one in the town ever made it past the first floor.

Roxas could beat the monsters with ease, _and_ he could make enough progress before the respawn period kicked in—randomly ranging from a few minutes to a few days. Reah didn’t know exactly how many floors the castle had, but she did know that whatever or whoever Roxas was trying to get was at the top.

On their last raid two days prior, Reah and Roxas had successfully conquered the thirty-seventh floor for the first time. Of course, leaving the castle meant they had to start all over, but at least they had gotten to the point where the first fifteen floors were a cakewalk for them, no matter how many of the monsters had respawned.

Reah gripped the two daggers between her hands. They were at a severe disadvantage in terms of the reach Roxas could manage, but they were the only weapon she could even manage to somewhat use. If anything, physical combat was more her expertise, but she didn’t have the strength to even cause damage to any of their enemies. She couldn’t even use magic either, but she wasn’t exactly there for the sake of being a powerhouse.

“Raaah!” Roxas shouted, swinging his blade. Reah shot back to the present, the impact of the few surviving monsters hitting against the opposite wall echoing with the remains of Roxas’s voice. “Alright, switch out!”

Reah dashed past Roxas, towards the three monsters—Heartless. They were some of the bulkier builds, even if Reah didn’t know their names. Regardless, they had made it to the tenth floor, which meant that she could handle them without too much damage and still get her job done. When the Heartless stood up to resume their attack, Reah countered, blocking their strikes and leaving an opening.

“_Firaga!_” Roxas called, his spell complete. While his magic was powerful, it took way too long to cast to be useful in a solo fight. A partner was necessary for it even to be worthwhile, and while Reah wasn’t worth much else, she could still leave enough time for Roxas not to worry about taking any heavy damage.

Reah moved just in time to see the flash of flame at the tip of Roxas’s keyblade, and then balls of fire burned the rest of the enemies into nothing. The Heartless disappeared, not even a burning smell left behind them. Reah checked her daggers to make sure they didn’t sustain any damage, and Roxas slung his blade over his shoulder.

“Looks like most of the floors are pretty clear today,” he said, sounding distant. “Let’s keep going.”

All Reah could do was nod.

* * *

Fighting the Heartless was a pain in and of itself. The Nobodies were even worse. Still, Reah didn’t know exactly what they were, and no research from either the school’s library or the internet had yielded any results. Asking Roxas was even less helpful, because he didn’t talk while they were in the castle, and trying to talk about things inside the castle while they were outside of it only made him cold. Reah preferred it if she could keep him friendly at school, so she gave up, instead focusing on the things that would help her in a fight.

Heartless generally had less durability than their same-sized Nobody counterparts, and they fell to Roxas’s keyblade much more easily. Reah had a better chance of fighting them off, too, and had even defeated a few on her own. Roxas had said it was better for him to make the finishing blows, and Reah didn’t question it. That just meant she had to go easier on them.

Roxas making the kill when it came to Nobodies was a better idea, too, but Reah didn’t have to worry about holding back against them. If she did, it only made matters worse, and she had gotten hurt pretty badly in more than one fight because of taking that course of action. The Nobodies were way out of her league, and seemed to go after her with way more vigor than they did towards Roxas. And, like always, Roxas could handle them easily, so long as there was enough time for him to prep some of his more advanced skills.

The higher the floor, the more the Nobodies outnumbered the Heartless, and Reah didn’t like the thought of what would happen once they made it to the top. There would probably only be Nobodies there, and her usefulness would be limited.

Still, she had to try. It was the least she could do.

* * *

That day, most of the lower floors were clear, making their ascent easy. Once they had reached the thirtieth floor, that progress had grinded rather substantially to a near halt, and Roxas’s actions seemed to get more forceful with each fight. Reah made it to the thirty-third floor before she started lagging behind her leader, and even walking at a normal speed made her breaths come out ragged.

“Oi,” she called. She hadn’t breathed properly, and her voice didn’t cover any helpful area, meaning Roxas continued on at his usual space. Reah took a deep breath, and tried again. “_Oi!_” This time Roxas stopped, looking over his shoulder. “We’ve been going nonstop since we got here. Can’t we take a break?”

Roxas blinked, for a moment the usual bright look in his eyes coming back. Reah relaxed immediately, sheathing her blades as the boy dug into one of his pockets. Finally pulling out his cellphone and assessing the screen, Roxas said, “Sorry about that. I completely lost track of time.” Taking a quick look around to make sure she didn’t set off any combat triggers—the monsters were fairly consistent with the areas they guarded—Reah sat down against the wall. “I’m gonna go scout ahead a bit. Why don’t you rest and I’ll come back when I clear a path?”

Reah bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t like the idea of splitting up from Roxas. At all. Still, this was the castle, so there would be no convincing him otherwise, and she nodded. “Just don’t go too far,” she warned. Roxas could handle himself in a solo fight, but Reah couldn’t. If he went too far, she really would be all alone. “You know I get antsy having you out of sight in here.”

“I know,” Roxas said, giving a reassuring smile. It was so warm, Reah could have believed they were back at the school, talking about homework. Only the blaringly obvious setting made it difficult for such a thought to be convincing. “Don’t you worry. I’ll just clear out the next corridor, so I’ll be in earshot distance. Call if you need me, and I’ll call if I need you.”

“Okay,” Reah agreed. Roxas picked up his keyblade, then took a turn to the right. Reah had only memorized the lower floors, but he had somehow managed to learn the whole map by now. If it weren’t for the monsters, Roxas would have no trouble running up to the thirty-seventh floor with his eyes closed.

Reah leaned her head back, resting it against the concrete. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to rest, but her legs and arms didn’t care. Roxas was really something else, being able to keep going like that. Then again, Reah had never been trained to be a warrior, and only had a few self-defense courses that she had barely passed under her belt. School-mandatory gym classes were the only developers of her limited endurance.

But she had wanted to be like this. Not exactly a hero, but pretending to be one. A sidekick. She had a partner she could trust, even if he kept secrets and could be single-minded at times. No matter what, Roxas would stick by her and help her out.

There was the echo of a shout, far enough away that it sounded like Reah had submerged her head underwater. She sat up, and a second shout followed, except it wasn’t her name. When the third shout came, she knew it wasn’t Roxas’s voice. Fumbling between gripping her daggers and getting back on her feet, Reah looked around, hoping to figure out what direction the sounds had come from.

Down the opposite end of the hall and at the entrance to one of the other corridors, flames licked the floor and arced into the air.

_That’s not how Roxas’s magic works and none of the enemies on this floor use fire… S-someone else is in the castle?!_

To Reah, this was nothing short of a miracle. All her years, the thought of someone being able to enter the castle was inconceivable. Roxas was the only person she had met that had even _thought_ of conquering the castle. And yet, there she was, on the thirty-third floor with someone else strong enough to survive this far.

_That’s why the other floors were so clear!_

“Haaaah!” This time, the sound was closer, so Reah could hear it clearly. It was a battle cry, its intent clear. A large Nobody came barreling out of the corridor the flames had been in, and crashed against the wall in a flash of silver. On instinct, Reah moved to serve as a counter, but immediately pulled back once she saw the glow of blue light flash.

“Fuck!” she cursed, before she realized it was a waste of time. Out of all the Nobodies she had encountered, this one was the worst. It was skinny and looked fragile, but it was a verdant magic user, capable of healing itself and other enemies and wasn’t limited on attack options, either. The worst part, though, was its summoning capabilities, which could easily turn any battle to a nightmare by bringing forth more Nobodies and Heartless to the fight.

A capability it had just used.

Reah blinked a few more times, trying to regain her vision. When she did, she knew it was all over. She was too worn out to be of any real use in a fight, and one of the newly arrived Heartless charged at her, making a square impact with her stomach. Reah flew back, collapsing onto the floor, the wind knocked out of her. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to breathe, but she couldn’t, and she wheezed for air.

From the corridor, a new figure stepped into the fray, brandishing weapons Reah couldn’t be bothered to remember the name of at the moment with her lungs deprived of oxygen. If she could have talked, she would have told him to run away before he got himself killed, or maybe cursed him out for letting the enemy multiply. Seeing as she couldn’t, Reah tried to focus on regaining her air.

“Man, that’s a cheap move you got there,” the figure remarked, voice distinctly male and far too light given the situation. “Guess that means you’re scared.”

Great, a trash talker. Reah would die to the soundtrack of unnecessary monologues.

The only good thing about this situation was, for the time being, that the Heartless had forgotten her, instead focusing on the newcomer. A total of five Heartless and Nobodies charged at once, and the Nobody that had brought them there was charging up another spell. Reah closed her eyes. She had seen a lot in her seventeen years, but she didn’t want to see someone else die.

Except there wasn’t the scream of pain she had been waiting for. Reah chanced to open an eye, and could see the newcomer’s weapons brandished, all six of the enemies knocked back, vulnerable. There was a smirk on his face, and Reah could feel the heat from the fire forming before she visually registered it. Not wanting to get caught in the spell, Reah ducked her head to the ground, hood pulled over it, _praying_ that Roxas had remembered to reinforce her gear with element resistant spells.

The fire rushed by, and Reah could smell smoke. When she lifted her head a bit, there were scorch marks on the floor. Given the fact that she hadn’t been burnt to a crisp, she owed Roxas a big thanks. She tried to sit up, but failed to do so when a hand grabbed onto the neckline of her jacket, lifting her from the ground. She had regained control of her breath at some point, but it was gone all over again, fear constricting her lungs.

“Well,” said the voice of the one who had saved her, “it looks like I finally found you.”


	2. Act I, Scene II

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene II: “Taking out your problems on other people isn’t a very attractive quality.”

* * *

Reah didn’t want to admit it, but she definitely squeaked. The guy that had picked her up was way taller than her, and her feet dangled in the air with no chance of reaching the ground. It wasn’t a position that she had ever really been in before, and panic twisted her stomach up with her other organs, making her queasy.

“Alright,” the guy said, settling Reah down on the floor so that they faced each other, “it’s about time you and I had a talk.” Even though he had let go of her jacket, his hand was still on her shoulder. Reah looked up, her gaze meeting up with almost flashing green eyes. The guy’s hair was sticking up in several directions at once, an orange-red that made Reah’s eyes hurt in comparison to the rest of their surroundings. Though the thing that bothered her the most was the jacket he was wearing, black with silver adornments.

The exact same as the one she was wearing right now.

“Wait a minute, you’re not Roxas.”

_Roxas._

Reah was even more of an idiot than usual. Roxas had said to call if she needed him, and she had spent an entire fight failing to do her job or cowering in a corner. Already, she felt like she was going to collapse, and now there was a stranger mistaking her for her partner. Sure, she had put her hood up and they were about the same height, but this was stupid.

Reah took a quick step back, shaking the redhead’s hand from her shoulder. “_Roxas!_” she shouted, her voice echoing.

Immediately, footsteps approached, loud and pounding. The redhead turned his attention away from Reah to the corridor behind him, and the girl took the chance to step back even further. Within seconds, Roxas was in the hall, keyblade bared, and he charged forward before stopping short of colliding with the redhead’s weapons, raised in a guard. Peaking around the guy’s shoulders, Reah took the time to recognize them as chakrams.

“Oh, there you are,” the guy remarked, sounding completely satisfied. “What’s the deal? I thought you gave up on having a partner and decided to run solo from now on. Change your mind?”

“What are you doing here?” Roxas spat out, none of his tension gone whatsoever. For the first time, Reah was seeing the boy angry—genuinely _angry_—his face contorted with eyebrows tightened and teeth bared. Finally, his eyes landed on Reah, and she tried to give her partner a reassuring smile. “You know what, never mind. Reah, we’re leaving.”

“Wh-what?” Reah stammered. She could almost _feel_ her eyes widening. Roxas only ever left the castle if he was exhausted or when they cleared a new floor. At the moment, neither were true, and even the redheaded guy seemed to be in shock. “I know I’m a little worse for wear, but I can keep going! Though I guess I could use one of your spells about now…”

Her rambling didn’t do anything to stop Roxas from walking towards her, the hall behind her being the one they had walked down less than fifteen minutes ago. He was planning to leave, and Reah got the sense that he wanted to go badly enough that he would drive off without her if she wasn’t in the car when he got there. Reah looked back to the redhead, unable to read his expression.

“Thank you for the save,” she said, then ran off after her partner.

* * *

“So who was that?” Reah asked, idly running her finger over the armrest imbedded into the car door. Roxas hadn’t said a single word the entire time it had taken to get back to the bottom of the castle, and he had fought every enemy by himself. Reah hadn’t gotten the healing she had asked for, and there was a sensation that felt like bruising on her stomach where the Heartless had charged into her. She would be lucky to make it to school the next day, given that her body would most likely demand to sleep in.

“Trouble,” Roxas said, staring at the road as always. With the time they had spent at the castle, the sky was darker, but not quite yet at nightfall. It was only when they had slipped back into their world that Rhea had realized just how far off from the school they had driven, and it would probably be some time before they got back.

Rhea frowned at the one word response. “Really, is that all you have to say?” she said, sitting up properly in the seat. It was hard to read Roxas’s expressions in profile, so she leaned as far forward as the seatbelt would allow her to, trying to get a better look. “Come on, Roxas, I know there’s a lot of things you don’t wanna talk about, but this is getting ridiculous. What if that guy comes back while we’re trying to clear the castle? I gotta be prepared.”

She had hoped there would be some sort of understanding come onto Roxas’s face. Instead, he looked as stoic as he did once they were inside the castle, and Rhea could feel her insides twisting up like a maypole.

Usually, when they left the castle for the day, he would at least smile a little.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Roxas said, flicking on his turn signal. “If he comes back again, I’ll take care of him.”

“But what if I’m _alone_?” Rhea persisted. She didn’t like to think about things like that, but she didn’t know what else she could do. As hard as Roxas tried, there was always a chance they could get separated, especially with the way fights were increasing in difficulty. It would only take one wrong move, and then what? Rhea could have easily died earlier. If the redheaded guy was as dangerous as Roxas was making him sound, didn’t she deserve to be prepared? “You don’t have to carry everything by yourself, you know, Roxas. I want to help you out.”

Roxas remained silent. Even with her newfound vantage point, Rhea couldn’t really read his expression. It was like he was hiding something, but it was so well done that not even a trace of it showed up on his face. Rhea tried to be patient, but waiting didn’t make words come out of Roxas’s mouth any faster.

After a solid three minutes of nothing, Rhea deduced that Roxas was ignoring her.

“Why don’t you just talk to me?” she said. Her voice came out higher than usual, but she didn’t care. There was a spark of _something_ on Roxas’s face that meant he had at least heard her. Rhea kept going. “I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done for me, Roxas, but I can’t _take_ this anymore. We’ve been trying to get through the castle together for almost a _year_, and you still won’t tell me _why_.

“I’m sick of having to sit around and pretend like I’m okay with you keeping secrets!” By now her voice had risen to a shout, but Rhea didn’t rein it in. “It’s driving me insane, Roxas. I get that I’m not any good in a fight and serve the purpose of being cannon fodder, but at least give me _something_. What are you so afraid of that you can’t even bother to open up to me?! Well—”

Without warning, Roxas slammed on the breaks. The catch kicked in on Rhea’s seatbelt, saving her from smashing her head against the dashboard. The rest of the road was empty, not a single other driver on it. Rhea sat up, expecting Roxas to keep driving, but he didn’t, and the car sat in the road in a part of town she didn’t recognize.

“Get out,” Roxas said, not even looking at her.

“H-hold on a minute,” Rhea protested, her pitch going from far above speaking volume to just below it in a few seconds. “You can’t be serious. You know I don’t know my way around here, Roxas. There’s no way I’d make it back to the school before curfew…”

“Get out,” he repeated, and the tone of his voice let Rhea knew that this was something he wasn’t going to change his mind about.

She started shaking before she could think to control it, and then she just gave up. Her teeth gnashed against the inside of her cheeks, tearing up the skin. Already she felt cold, freezing, even though it was just early fall. Not wanting to see his face anymore, Rhea slammed her eyes shut, desperately forcing her breathing to stay normal and just barely succeeding.

_This… This isn’t fair!_

Her shaking fingers failed to undo her seatbelt the first two times, then accomplished their goal on the third. Roxas had already unlocked the door, and Rhea opened it, stumbling out. She didn’t even bother to grab her gear from the back, just tried not to trip on the edge of the curb and taking a few extra steps before half-lowering herself, half-falling to her knees.

_You said that it wouldn’t have to end like this again…!_

There was the sound of her door slamming shut, probably by Roxas. A few seconds passed, and then the car sped off, without her. Rhea didn’t look back. Her hands stung from their impact with the concrete, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t have the strength to walk anymore, and she wouldn’t have been able to find her way back to the school otherwise. Her throat burned, and hot tears finally broke out of her eyes, followed by a sob.

_…Why did I let myself believe you?_

For the first time in the year since Roxas had brought her here, the clouds poured down their rain.

* * *

Rhea settled for curling up in a ball on a sidewalk, not caring that she was soaked. She’d probably end up sick, too, but it didn’t matter. She was stuck with the same sort of result, no matter where she went. It was the same thing over and over again, so just waiting until she wasted away on the sidewalk was as good as an answer as any. She had already cried her throat raw, and she wondered when she would just pass out already.

It hadn’t taken much to recognize that the area she was in wasn’t very populated, even with the houses she could see a few streets away. That was the problem with the town: it was too big for its own good, and there weren’t enough people to fill up its buildings. It was the complete opposite of her old town, where even people with money overflowed onto the streets.

Even a year wasn’t enough to cope with it all.

Rhea had a cell phone. Roxas had convinced her to get it, for emergencies. He had said to use it if she ever needed him. Well, Rhea needed _someone_, and it wasn’t going to be Roxas. She didn’t even bother to pull out the phone. Roxas’s was the only number she had in her contacts. No one else at school even talked to her, though that was her own choice.

Rhea now recognized her behavior as one thing: idiotic. She had been so afraid of getting hurt again, she had only opened up to one person. She had thought that would have made it easier if it didn’t work. But it didn’t. It only made it worse, because the one lifeline Rhea had had was now gone, and she was falling.

“So, it looks like he tossed you off, too.”

Of all things, it had to be a joke. Rhea looked up anyway. Sure enough, the same redhead from the castle was there, standing on the street, a backpack slung over his shoulder. Rhea went to scoot away from him, but stopped. He had saved her in the castle. Even if Roxas said he was trouble, Rhea couldn’t help it.

_Just give me someone to talk to._

“Do you know how to get back to the school?” Rhea asked. Her voice sounded hoarse. She went to stand up, her socks and shoes _squelch_ing uncomfortably. Even Roxas’s magic couldn’t stop her jacket from being soaked through. All she wanted right now was to go to her dorm and take a hot shower, maybe even sleep through her classes tomorrow.

“I do,” the guy said, sounding nonchalant. “But I don’t think that’s where you really want to go.”

Rhea flinched. She didn’t know where else she would go. Her optimistic trust was on the edge. Was it really that big of a deal to just go back to the school? “Where else would we go?” The guy smirked a bit, and Rhea noticed the small tattoos underneath his eye. He was looking more and more like a punk each second. “Though I guess if you’re trying to hit on me, it’s kind of pointless considering I don’t know your name.”

Even if she was suffering from rebound syndrome at the moment, she wasn’t going to let herself be taken advantage for it.

The guy snorted, leaning forward a bit with his laughter. The rain somewhat weighed his hair down, but it persisted pretty well in sticking up. There must be some powerful product to pull that off. Even his jeans were freaking tattered, now that she looked at them. Fucking combat boots, too. “Well, I guess you’re not as outwardly willing to show that you’re down, but I can tell,” he commented. Rhea gritted her teeth. “Taking out your problems on other people isn’t a very attractive quality. Got it memorized?”

For a moment, Rhea considered punching him. Then she remembered that this guy had cleared thirty floors of the castle on his own. “You’re not very good at listening, now are you?” she settled for retorting. Just because he was right about her state of mind didn’t mean that she had to show it. “You didn’t answer either of the things I wanted to know.”

It hurt. Everything hurt inside of her, like claws raking at her lungs. She didn’t care too much, but she pursued an answer anyways, because it was better than doing nothing.

“Though, for starters, I guess I’ll bite,” he allowed. “My name’s Axel. Got it—”

“Rhea,” she interrupted. In addition to monologuing in fights, he even had a catch phrase. Rhea didn’t have the patience to deal with either. If he tried again, she would try and find a way back to the school on her own, even though she probably would get even more lost in the process. And if she passed out on the side of the road, then that was what she got.

Axel didn’t look impressed, but he had an odd expression on his face. “Alright then,” he said, something akin to slight annoyance in his tone. Rhea ignored it. “I guess we’ll move on to your question then. Have you ever heard of the Fifty-Minute Room?”

She didn’t even think before shaking her head. Rumors had never been her thing in the first place. When Roxas had invited her to the school and helped her settle down, Rhea had done everything she could to keep away from them. If there was some weird nonsense floating around the school, she wasn’t even aware of its implied existence.

Axel’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, and then it was gone. He scratched at the back of his neck, not quite making eye contact. Rhea just glared in response. “Well, I guess that makes this sound crazy then. But I’ll just get to the point. If you want a place to go and recover where no one can really bother you, then I can help with that.”

“You’ve being annoyingly vague.”

“Gah, just wait a goddamn minute!” Axel protested. Rhea folded her arms back across her chest, hoping to make herself feel warmer. Water just got wrung out of her jacket and trickled down her stomach instead. “Okay, fine, nothing I say is going to convince you, I got it. So just get out your cell phone and I can show you.”

Rhea wondered if her cell phone would still work. Even if it did, this sounded like some cheap scam for Axel to give her his number. She pulled the phone out of her pocket, pressing the power button, then waited for it to start up. Despite her worries, the screen flashed to light, covered in rain drops. If this was a stupid scam, it would at least make her contacts a little less lonely.

“Whoa, that’s a pretty retro model you got there,” Axel said, leaning over to look at it. Rhea let an angry exhale out her nostrils, then pulled the phone back to her chest. So what if it was an old model? It didn’t need a touch screen or twenty different apps when all she was gonna do was call for help. “Easy there, Princess. It’s just been a while since I’ve seen something like this.”

“My name is Rhea,” she grumbled. “Why don’t you memorize that?” Not even waiting for a response, she looked back to her phone. It had fully powered up in the time for their short exchange, and the battery was still full.

Because she had never really had a need to turn it on before.

Axel plucked the phone out of her grasp. “Hey!” Ignoring her shouts, the redhead proceeded to press buttons. He was tall enough that Rhea couldn’t see what he was doing, either. “Give it back! You could have just _told_ me what to do, you know!” What if he broke it? It was still a gift from Roxas, so she needed to keep it in good shape.

“Yeah, yeah, here,” Axel drawled, dropping the phone into Rhea’s waiting hands. She scrambled a bit, then wiped the gathered raindrops off the glass. Axel had pulled up the call screen and inputted a number. “Just go ahead and call that. You’ll have all the time in the world to think things over then.”

“What the hell’s with this area code?” Rhea protested. In fact, the whole number was strange. It even had more than ten digits. There was no way it would process properly.

Axel only smirked, pulling his own phone out of his pocket. “Why don’t you call it and find out?”

Practicality told Rhea not to, but curiosity and sheer exhaustion won out.

She pressed the call button and raised the phone to her ear.


	3. Act I, Scene III

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene III: “Well, I guess that makes me nobody then.”

* * *

The sound of the number being dialed left a string of beeps far longer than any ordinary number. Still, it seemed like the number had been accepted, and there was the click of the line being connected. There was no ringing after that, only silence. Rhea scowled, pulling the phone away from her ear, ready to hang up, already engaged in the act of criticizing herself for falling for such a stupid prank.

In the street in front of her, sat a dark blue limousine, and Rhea almost dropped her phone.

It had definitely not been there a second ago, and she hadn’t heard it approach, either. But its engine was running, the headlights were on, and the front passenger side window slid down, revealing a young woman in the driver’s seat.

“Are you the next guest for the Fifty-Minute Room?” she asked.

“H-hey, what the hell is this?” Rhea asked, turning to Axel. The spot on the sidewalk where the redhead had been standing was now empty. Rhea looked around, but there wasn’t any sign of him there, either. He wasn’t _anywhere_, even though the rest of the neighborhood was the same. Even the rain hadn’t stopped, and the dry spot that had formed from her sitting on the sidewalk was slowly getting encased by raindrops.

The only thing different was the redhead’s disappearance.

“Ah, I see that you’re a first-timer,” the girl in the driver’s seat remarked. “This car is the transportation to the Fifty-Minute Room. My name is Dew, and I am responsible for your transportation there and back. You did call the number, correct?”

Rhea looked back to her phone, the call screen still open, the line connected. Yup, she had called it all right.

“In that case, I would appreciate it if you would make a decision,” Dew said, sounding like she had read Rhea’s mind. Then again, maybe her expression was just too easy to read. “You are not the only guest that needs to be picked up today, and I would prefer not to be late to their call if they truly need it. So would you please get in or disconnect from our services so that I may continue?”

Rhea swallowed. Something in Dew’s voice implied that she was a bit frustrated, but Rhea couldn’t help it. She hadn’t asked for this sort of treatment—Axel had forced it on her. Beyond that, it felt like some drug trip. Something like this just couldn’t have been real, and was probably a trap.

_Oh get over yourself. You and Roxas fight—well, fought—monsters in an alternate dimension all the time. Who’s to say there aren’t other worlds and creatures out there? Just because you’ve been living in a world with limited magic doesn’t mean it’s not there._

Rhea stepped towards the limo’s back door and pulled open the handle. From what Dew had said, Rhea had expected to see several other people inside, but there weren’t. There were just seats along the back walls, all lined in dark blues and greens. A window towards the front slid open, and Dew’s face was visible through the opening.

“Feel free to sit wherever you like,” she said. “We will go once you are comfortable. Afterwards, we will arrive at the Fifty-Minute Room shortly. Please feel free to ask me anything to make your ride more enjoyable.”

Rhea climbed into the car, the door shutting behind her. She took the seat closest to the door, and Dew’s compartment slid shut. For looking like ordinary cushions, the seats were more comfortable than Rhea’s bed, and definitely outclassed Roxas’s car. She could probably fall asleep without any problem. Just sitting down reminded her of how exhausting everything had been.

It reminded her that Roxas had driven off without a care.

“Dew,” she said, and the window slid back open, “just what is the Fifty-Minute Room like?”

“It is something best witnessed for yourself,” Dew answered. In the rearview mirror, her eyes glanced back, almost flashing gold. “As for the basic instructions, my employers have a particular penchant for explaining those details themselves. It is not often that we get newcomers, and they would be rather disappointed if I were to take that opportunity away from them.”

“I see…” Rhea mumbled, and the window slid shut.

* * *

It couldn’t have been more than five minutes since Rhea had stepped into the limo that it came to a halt. The window slid back open, and Dew actually leaned over the seat to address her passenger. “We have arrived at the Fifty-Minute Room,” she announced. “Please enjoy your stay. I will be prepared to escort you back to your point of origin at any time you need so.”

And the passenger door opened.

Rhea immediately had to squint. There was nothing but a bright white, and after being in the dim light of the limo, her retinas were unprepared. Any sense of being able to fall asleep had disappeared. Even feeling awake didn’t do anything to improve her ability to stand properly, and Rhea more fell out of the limo than she stepped out.

A hand grabbed onto her arm, keeping her from hitting the floor. It was a man with a smile on his face and dressed in a button up and khakis. Something about him seemed distinguishable, but there were no words for her to describe it. “Watch your step,” he said, just the right mix of concern and chiding in his voice. “Oh, dear, you look exhausted. No wonder you decided to come here. I’d normally ask you to take a seat, but we have another guest arriving soon, so would you mind coming with me to the next room?”

Rhea nodded. As long as it meant she got to rest soon, she didn’t care. Whether the man thought she needed the help to even stand or just considered her clumsy, he didn’t let go, helping her walk across the small room. There were several white armchairs along the sides, all empty. Rhea pressed on with the man to a (white as well) door, which led to an open room with several other doors on the side and a couch and coffee table in the middle.

It was only about five steps to get there, but they took almost everything that Rhea had. Finally, she sunk down into the couch, which was even better than the seats in the limo. It was almost like a cloud or a marshmallow—minus the sticky bits—and she just wanted to stay there forever.

“As difficult as it may be, I am going to have to ask you to stay awake just a few minutes longer,” the man said. “It is our policy in the Fifty-Minute Room that all first-timers must be aware of the rules, as to optimize their stay, as well as the stays of all our guests. As such, please hang in there with me. I could get you some tea, if you like.”

Rhea only shook her head. Tea would only keep her awake for hours on end.

“Very well. Welcome to the Fifty-Minute Room. My name is Sir, and I will be your host,” he introduced. He accented the words with a hand folded across his chest and short bow, very much like a butler. “Your hostess is my wife, Madam. She is currently occupied with greeting our next guest, but you will see her around.

“The purpose of the Fifty-Minute Room is to provide a refuge for anyone who needs it, regardless of their situation, occupation, or point of origin. The services of the Fifty-Minute Room are free in terms of money, so you may stay as long as you need or like without worries. That being said, there are a few long-term guests here who are trying to recover from some disparaging circumstances, so please respect their problems as much as you want them to respect yours and try to maintain a quiet atmosphere.

“The only compensation we ask for here is fifty minutes of your time. You may stay here as long as you want, but fifty minutes will have passed from the time that you called us to enter. This amount remains the same no matter what. If you stay here for weeks, years even, only fifty minutes will have passed. If you stay here for a lesser amount than fifty minutes, fifty minutes will still have passed. Do you understand?”

Rhea nodded. Maybe all the fine little details hadn’t completely processed, but she got the gist of things. She could probably ask questions later, too, or at least she hoped so.

“Any additional questions you should feel free to ask at any time, but please understand that we may be preoccupied and not able to answer immediately,” Sir continued. “That being said, you are free to use your time here as your wish, and we will do our best to accommodate you as we can. Please enjoy your stay, Miss Rhea.”

“Oh, so you made it.”

By now, Axel’s voice was familiar. Sir turned, and Rhea leaned sideways to see past the host. Amidst all the white, Axel managed to stick out as much as he did in the castle, his dripping hair blazing, a towel around his neck, the black of his jacket making an impact against Rhea’s eyes, though she wasn’t sure if it was welcome or unwelcome. Behind him stood a woman in a light pink blouse and a tan skirt, her face giving off the same indescribable quality as Sir’s.

“So do you plan to explain this to me properly or not?” Rhea said, even though her voice was weak. “You just gave me that number without any pretext and sent me off.”

“Hey, hey, you didn’t have to call it. You didn’t have to get in the car, either,” Axel retorted. Rhea held her breath for a second. Just because it was true didn’t mean she still couldn’t be angry. “Besides, I _asked_ if you knew about the Fifty-Minute Room. I thought everybody knew that rumor.”

Rhea wanted to yell, but Sir’s request to keep things quiet made her hold her tongue. “Well, I guess that makes me nobody then,” she grumbled.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, dears, but you are both soaking wet,” the woman—that Rhea assumed was Madam—said. Somehow, Rhea had adjusted, but having it said out loud only reminded her. She shivered, and even Axel looked uncomfortable. “Why don’t we get you two a change of clothes, and then you can continue your conversation?”

Axel shrugged. “Sounds good to me,” he agreed before looking to Rhea. “What do you think?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sounds good.”

* * *

Rhea hesitated before taking off her jacket. Sure, it was soaked all the way through, and she really did need to change, but she couldn’t just leave it out to dry in an unfamiliar place. Sir had said that he and Madam wanted to make the best experience, but he had also mentioned other guests. Rhea’s suspicions about Axel aside, there was no guarantee the others were friendly. What if one of them took the jacket? What would she do then?

“Oh geeze, come on,” Rhea murmured, pulling the jacket over her head along with her drenched shirt. “It just looks like an old, worn out hoodie. No one’s going to care about it.”

The jacket had seen better days—namely, before Rhea had gotten her hands on it. Roxas had given it to her for when they went to the castle, joking that it had special powers since it matched his own. In reality, Roxas could had placed charms on it to give extra protection, especially since both Heartless and Nobodies had the potential to wield magic, and Rhea was prone to that sort of thing. The year of battles and casted spells had worn down the fabric, but it didn’t matter.

It was still a gift.

“If you want, I can put your clothes through the wash for you, Dear,” Madam’s voice said. Rhea jumped, turning around to the room’s entrance, clutching the wad of clothes to her chest and sending a fresh trickle of water down her stomach. The hostess, while present, had her eyes closed, but Rhea still flushed. “At the very least the dryer.”

Rhea mentally relaxed her tensed up muscles. Tension was never good in a fight, and even less so in hardly threatening circumstances. She kept her fingers tight around the jacket, though, not wanting to let go. Roxas had already dumped her on the side of the road. She _couldn’t_ lose his gifts, too.

“I could also provide a few hangers to let your clothes air dry,” Madam continued. “You’d be able to keep them in your room. Of course, our laundry services are private, and no one would have access to your belongings.” Madam tilted her head to the side. It looked like an unconscious motion. “What will it be, Dear?”

The familiarity was what did it. The room Rhea was in had clothes of every conceivable size, color, and type. Near the front was an empty laundry basket. She threw the wet pile of clothes into the basket before she could change her mind. Madam waited, not saying another word and Rhea found sweatpants and a plain t-shirt to sleep in. She ducked behind a curtain along the right wall, changing. There was even a towel, soft and feeling like it had just come from the dryer. She kept her underwear, but everything else was tossed into a sopping pile, including her shoes. When she was done, Rhea gathered her things, grabbed a fresh pair of socks on her way back to the entrance, and left her laundry to the basket.

The feeling of fresh clothes was almost heavenly. It took changing for just how miserable Rhea had been to register. Everything felt warm and comforting, and she yawned, covering her mouth with a hand.

Madam picked up the basket. “We’ll return these to your room once they’re done,” she said, a warm smile on her face. Rhea nodded, feeling the need to doze off more than before. “That being said, I’d like to apologize. We were unaware that a new guest would be coming, so we haven’t made the necessary room to house you. If you don’t have any complaints, we would like to have you share a room with another guest for now.”

Madam kept her smile, but a trace of minor regret was in her eyes. Rhea could care less so long as the next room she was shown had a bed she could collapse into. “It’s fine,” she said, and she could _hear_ how tired she was. “I just wanna rest. Where do I go?”

“This way.” Madam turned toward the door, and Rhea followed. The halls were white and seemed identical, but she wasn’t paying much attention, either. They stopped in front of a door, and Madam knocked. She must have dropped off the basket at some point, because both of her hands were empty. “Here you are, Dear.”

“Thanks.” Rhea tried to give the woman a smile, and opened the door. Predictably, the room was white, but had the most furniture, even if she didn’t register what they all were—dresser, couch, _bed_, who cared after that? Rhea looked around for her supposed roommate, then turned around to face Madam.

Except the woman was gone and Axel was sitting in the room.

Complaining would do no good—Rhea had agreed. She had hoped to share a room with a girl, but she could deal. It had sounded like Axel had come here before, plus Sir and Madam sounded like they wanted to give their guests the best possible situation they could. They wouldn’t have put her in a room with Axel if he was going to make her too uncomfortable.

Rhea closed the door. “I get the bed,” she said. She didn’t have the energy to make it sound authoritative. Axel seemed just fine on the couch, and if it was as half as comfortable as the one Rhea had sat in earlier, he would have no problem sleeping in it. Not even waiting for a response, the girl walked over to the bed, and did her best to get into it without falling over. It was only partially successful, but it would be stupid to try a do-over. “I’m going to sleep now.”

Axel shrugged. “Do what you like,” he said. If Rhea read his tone right, he didn’t care in the slightest. The redhead made some hand gesture, and the lights dimmed, only really illuminating the couch and table area. Rhea got under the covers, turning her back to him. The light didn’t make it to the other side of the room at all, white replaced with black, and the blankets were just as warm as they needed to be. Even the pillow supported her head without agitating her neck.

It was exactly what she wanted. Sir and Madam hadn’t been kidding when they had said service.

“And we’re gonna talk tomorrow,” she mumbled, her words starting to slip into each other. “About what you’re up to. And what you were doing.” It didn’t make much sense. Rhea gave up on talking.

“Whatever you say,” Axel responded. She couldn’t tell if he had even heard her properly. She probably wasn’t going to remember much when she woke up, even after orientating herself. It didn’t matter.

But other things did. The castle mattered. Getting tossed out of the car mattered. Roxas mattered, and so did all his secrets. Even in her exhaustion, the feeling that if she had known at least some things, _one_ thing, then she wouldn’t be in the Fifty Minute Room, wouldn’t be in the same place all over again.

_Good job, you did it again. You’re way too clingy._

With a resigned sort of depression, Rhea fell asleep.


	4. Act I, Scene IV

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene IV: “You always that exhausted after storming the castle?”

* * *

Rhea opened her eyes, trying to sit up. She felt refreshed, which was definitely wrong considering she and Roxas had raided the castle the previous night. That meant she had slept past her alarm, which she hadn’t heard go off. Roxas had a spare key to her dorm room, and would wake her up if she did sleep in, and that hadn’t happened either. And no matter how late they stayed up in the castle, Roxas always seemed full of energy.

So where was he?

Blinking, Rhea tried to see through the darkness. “Actually, where am I?” she muttered.

“The Fifty Minute Room,” Madam’s voice said. The room sprang back into light, completely blazing white, and the woman was at the bedside. Rhea jumped, pulling the blankets closer to her, everything registering. She exhaled, tempted to just sink back into the mattress and sleep until she felt better.

Maybe if she slept long enough, she could convince herself she wasn’t alone.

“I can escort you to get changed before you eat,” Madam continued. “Preparations for your own room have also been completed, so I could take you there whenever you like, Dear.” The woman smiled, and Rhea looked around the room.

Wherever Axel was, he wasn’t there. And Rhea wasn’t about to sit around in such a bleak looking room all by herself.

Rhea nodded her approval, and Madam gestured for the girl to follow. Now that her eyes weren’t threatening to fall shut and stay that way at any given moment, they were protesting at just how bland everything was. She couldn’t see any light bulbs, but whatever was illuminating the place could use a dimmer.

“If you don’t mind me asking, is there a reason the décor’s so blinding?” Rhea asked. She tried to keep any tones of criticism out of her voice, but it was hard. She glanced at Madam’s face. The woman’s expression was completely neutral, not particularly seeming pleased or insulted by the question.

“I’m sorry about that. You see, not only was your room unprepared, but our comfort databases were not set to include any new data. The Fifty-Minute Room is set up to analyze and tend to the needs of our guests in every way possible. Now that our system is ready, and that you’re awake, it will begin to analyze your reactions and preferences. In an hour, any place you encounter in the Fifty-Minute Room will then automatically adjust in your perception to your comfort.”

Databases, huh? “So it’s technology and not magic?”

Madam smiled, the faintest trace of mirth across her otherwise imperceptible expression. “It’s technology enhanced by magic. We find this works best in accomplishing our goals.” Rhea didn’t even have the passing thought before Madam continued, “There are a number of times in life where people need a refuge, Dear. My husband and I know that better than anyone. We were fortunate enough to be able to provide that for others, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

With that bit of personal information and the trust that came with it, Rhea didn’t have the heart to press further.

“You’re too kind, Dear. Now, feel free to choose any clothes you like. If you wish to retrieve your clothes from yesterday, I can provide them again.”

They had entered the laundry room from before. Sure enough, Rhea spotted her hoodie hanging close to the back changing room and dashed towards it. The rest of her clothes were folded beneath it, and she changed. A bath would be in order soon, but she couldn’t deny the rumble for food in her stomach.

“Ready to go,” she announced, fully dressed again. Once more, the clothes held the warmth of a fresh dryer tumble, increasing the comfort she got from Roxas’s gift.

_Roxas…_

Madam gave Rhea a moment before stepping into the hallway. Unlike the castle, the layout in the Fifty Minute Room seemed much simpler, though it was more of a commune than a single room. Rhea couldn’t complain much if what Axel said about the place was true, plus boarding seemed free. If anything, she needed to focus on finding the red-haired boy and figuring out just what the hell he knew about what was going on.

She was in luck, her target sitting at a table, an empty plate in front of him. He had changed from his dark hoodie, but you couldn’t mistake that hair of his. There were a few other people, sharp bursts of color striking out against the white tables and walls, but Rhea didn’t pay any mind to them. Madam gave a reminder to eat and directed Rhea to the order window in the back before stepping off. Keeping her eyes on Axel, she complied.

“Good morning,” Sir’s voice sang, ducking his head through the window, a plate already waiting in front of them. Waffles with strawberries. Rhea hadn’t thought much about what she wanted for breakfast, but seeing it she knew this was it without question. “We do aim to please, after all. Don’t worry about any request being far too extravagant. We can provide without a doubt.”

“Thank you,” Rhea said, too stunned to come up with anything else. The exact way the Fifty Minute Room read her thoughts bordered between creepy and impressive. Ducking her head to Sir in appreciation, Rhea went to corner Axel before he ran away.

She didn’t need to worry, the redheaded boy toying with a butter knife between his fingers. Rhea passed up the other empty seats and claimed the side of the table across from him. “Ah, so you’re awake,” he said. “You were completely passed out when I got up. You always that exhausted after storming the castle?”

Rhea felt the blush on her cheeks and ducked her head. Her stamina was way less than what was necessary for the castle, and Roxas’s kindness had been the reason he brought her along. She had gone to the castle in an attempt to run away, and he had asked for her help, even brought her to school with him. A year had passed, and Rhea had grown comfortable with the arrangement.

“Yesterday was emotionally exhausting,” she corrected. Getting up to the thirtieth floors hadn’t been tiring with the path Axel had cleared for them. Getting thrown out by Roxas did more damage than any Heartless or Nobody could inflict. “But I’m rested, so I have questions. You agreed to answer them last night.”

She couldn’t say she was better, because she wasn’t.

Axel nodded, dropping the butter knife into the rest of his silverware with a clatter. Rhea picked up her own fork and took slow bites of fruit and waffle in an attempt to stop her stomach from revolting. “What I was up to and what I was doing, right? Which one of those questions do you want answered first?”

Rhea frowned. What an anal guy. They were pretty much the same thing, but she had been the one to ask in her half asleep state. “You were looking for Roxas,” she settled on. And had mistaken her for him to boot. “I tried asking him about you, but he wouldn’t answer me. So how do you know each other?”

Axel’s eyes flashed with hurt before he reset his expression. “Going right for the tough ones, huh?” he attempted to joke, but even Rhea could hear the catch in his voice. “Well, I used to do what you did. Roxas and I would raid the castle together, trying to get to the top.”

Rhea reached for the plain glass Sir had provided on her tray and took a drink to hide her grimace. Cool milk burst over her taste buds. The idea of someone else in her place dragged icicles down her spine. Roxas had replaced Axel with Rhea, and would replace her with someone else. “What happened?”

“We encountered powerful magic on the forty-fifth floor.” Rhea couldn’t even imagine the challenge of five floors higher, let alone more than ten. Then again, from what she had seen, Axel was a far more competent fighter than she could be. Reaching that high would be easy when paired with Roxas. “It was aimed at me, but Roxas took the brunt of it. I don’t know what all it did, but he doesn’t recognize me anymore. No matter what, he thinks I’m someone else.”

Silence held over the room, even with the other guests. No one else in the room had sat close enough to each other to talk, and guilt surged at Rhea’s heart for making Axel speak about a sensitive topic in such an open space. “Should we…um…move somewhere else?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Axel drawled, sadness still coloring even his dismissive words. “You need to eat, plus no one else can hear anyway. It’s part of the privacy magic on this place. The only way you can disturb someone else is by getting in their face.”

Rhea nodded. Sometimes it was just better to accept the rules of magic than question it too hard. While she could afford that luxury to the Fifty Minute Room, Axel couldn’t afford that to the spell that had affected Roxas’s memories.

_At least with that, though, there’s a chance of undoing it. I just opened my big mouth a bit too much. No counter spell’s gonna fix Roxas hating me._ The memory of getting thrown from the car threated tears with a sting in Rhea’s eyes. She shoved a forkful of waffle into her mouth to create a pause in the conversation.

When she felt like she could talk without sobbing, Rhea redirected the conversation. “So why did you come back, then?” Axel looked to the ceiling in thought. For Rhea, it was just pure white, but to his comfort algorithm, maybe it was more interesting. “I fought with Roxas in the castle for almost a year, but we’ve never run into each other before.”

“That’s ‘cause I needed time to sort myself out.” Axel tapped a finger to his temple. “I’ll admit, it took me longer than it should have, but I finally realized that sitting around and sulking wasn’t going to get me anywhere. So I thought I’d take a shot and see Roxas again.” He shrugged with a grimace. “It didn’t go well, as you saw, but I’m not giving up yet.”

Rhea stared down at her half-eaten plate, wishing for that kind of resolve. She felt like nothing more than giving up. No matter what, it seemed she was meant to be abandoned. Sticking to her guns would have done better, but Roxas had been so kind and open—he had _saved_ her, and she thought that meant things would end differently.

_Clearly not._

When she looked back up, Axel frowned. “So what I’m trying to say is take your time. Roxas can make it far in the castle, but making it to the top on his own is difficult. You don’t have to rush.” He gestured to Rhea. “Focus on yourself for a bit. You’ll feel better.”

“And what, I’m just supposed to sulk around for a year like you?” Rhea snapped before she could think otherwise. “I’m not going to waste my time on being alone and miserable.” If that were the choice, Rhea would rather get hurt over and over again. “Just because you were too much of a coward to get Roxas back doesn’t mean I’m going to be.”

Axel stood, his height towering over Rhea. She didn’t balk and glared right back, grinding her fork into the breakfast plate. Rhea had poked at a sore spot and she knew it. Beyond depression, a sharp anger jabbed at her common sense, ready to pick a fight, even if she would lose.

“That’s the thing,” Axel said, fake joviality sticking to his words like haphazardly applied glue, “it doesn’t _have _to be a year. Figure out what it is you need and get yourself back together before Roxas forgets you, too. Got it memorized?” And he picked up his tray and dropped it off in a dish box Rhea hadn’t even noticed before sulking out of the room.

Rhea ground waffles between her teeth, but it wasn’t enough to take off the edge.

* * *

_Rhea made it up the first hill before she stopped running. Her lungs begged for air. Behind her, the town with no name sat nestled between rolls of land. A few lights were on across the buildings, dim pinpricks against the darkness. Above head, the constant full moon peaked out behind hazy clouds, backlighting the castle above her._

_The castle had appeared one day when Rhea was a child. It was far back enough in her memory that she couldn’t remember the details. Since then, the people of the town had become accustomed to it, and, after the first handful of explorers had failed to return, didn’t approach it. The castle served as a common ghost story, but not even reckless teenagers would approach it on a dare._

_Which was why Rhea was headed there._

_She was tired, very tired._

_She didn’t want to be found._

What’s the point when everyone’s just going to throw me away anyways…?

_The town with no name was small and had limited resources. Rhea had been lucky enough to be born into a family with a home and some stability, so she had lived a comfortable life in comparison to others. She had thought that walking around town would build enough energy to make it to the castle, but that had been proven wrong._

_One hill in, and there were still several to go. Rhea wanted to rest, but even in a world of constant night, the people would awake in time. The hill she stood on rested to close to town, within foraging distance and in line of sight. She needed to move further in before her parents realized she was gone._

Don’t stop. Don’t give in.

_Rhea pushed forward several more hills up, each elevating higher than the last. Her legs burned, but Rhea kept walking, soon making it to the final hill that the castle rested on. Stopping there would be safe, but Rhea started the climb anyway. After coming so far, she didn’t want to stop. The path winded around the base of the castle hill, spinning her view in circles as she tried not to look down._

_Making it to the top, Rhea fell over, close to the edge. The smell of soil accompanied her attempts to reclaim air. She could make out her town, a faint blur of yellow nestled between rolling hills of shadow. No other towns rested in the distance, an isolated world. The castle stood as the only other marker of civilization, and no one seemed to live inside._

_Rhea rolled onto her back, looking up at the structure. It stood just as impressive as it looked from the town, several spires and buildings interconnected, orange light flickering behind its windows. Unlike the town, with its small magic-run electricity hub, no artificial lights hung in this place. _

_Whatever the danger that had prevented the return of the townsfolk, it wasn’t on the path there. The trouble had to be inside._

So that’s where I’m going.

_Rhea didn’t know what to expect, but she didn’t care. Once she could stand without her legs trembling, Rhea moved closer to the castle. Lit torches flanked both sides of the wooden door, flames sending jumping light down on the stairs to the entrance. Rhea took one step at a time, pausing when she reached the door._

_This was the chance to turn back. And she wanted to. She wanted to go back home, apologize to her family for worrying them, talk to her friends and fix things. She wanted to stay in the town with no name and live a happy life, like everyone else._

_“I can’t…” Her voice cracked. “I can’t go back. Not when…”_

_Not when her “friends” were going to leave her behind again._

Just like always.

_Rhea struggled as she pushed open the door, her shoes catching traction on the floor with each step. Once inside, she found an empty hall, more lit torches lining the walls. The place looked empty enough. Maybe it was as empty as everyone had guessed. _

Maybe they don’t want guests and you’re about to find out why no one ever comes back.

_Fear and disgust fought a battle in her stomach, but the refusal to go home won. Rhea went to push the castle door back into place, and it closed much easier than it opened. Just to check, she tugged on the handle, and it opened a crack before Rhea let it close into place again. She could get out if necessary. It made stepping forward easier._

_The walls swirled in on each other, building a blocky maze. Rhea wandered, stumbling upon a set of stairs before meeting any people. Coming from a town where the tallest buildings were three stories high, she had no sense of how big the building was from the outside. Rhea gripped the handrail and used it as support for her failing heart and legs._

Maybe I’ll just be stuck wandering in a maze forever,_ she considered._ Maybe I’ll find everyone who came here before and got lost, living in a new community. Maybe it’ll be better, and we’ll stay here forever. With so few people, we’ll have to rely on each other.

I won’t get left behind again, then.

_The thoughts soothed Rhea’s concerns as she stepped into the entrance to the second floor. For some reason, the stairs only connected the two floors. More stairwells must’ve rested further in. It was an inefficient design for such a large building, but Rhea didn’t care. She would keep exploring this castle, or she would collapse trying. Those things could only happen if she stepped forward._

_And so she did. Until she rounded a corner and small black creature with bulging yellow eyes charged at her, slamming into Rhea’s stomach and sending her head cracking against the stone castle wall._


	5. Act I, Scene V

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene V: “For you, that’s the _value_ you place on fifty minutes.”

* * *

By the time Rhea finished eating (it was delicious, despite her souring mood), the Fifty Minute Room’s comfort whatever had finally kicked in. As such, the dining hall morphed into what Rhea could best surmise as a combination of the school’s cafeteria and kitchen of her former home, most of the walls in varying shades of blues, all brighter than the sky. The furniture stayed in the muted brown range.

Familiarity stung Rhea at recognition, before she realized that the surroundings _did_ make her feel better, and stepped back into the hallway to find her new room. Presuming it to be in the same direction as Axel’s, she set off down the hall, which had undergone a similar change. The carpet remained plush under her feet.

A few people passed, heading towards the now cafeteria. They all came from the same direction, bolstering Rhea’s confidence that she had chosen the right route. In particular, a man with shaggy pink hair and a woman with her blonde hair in pigtails caught Rhea’s eye, both too old to attend her school.

Like the town with no name that Rhea came from, the town Roxas had taken her to was equally peculiar in that it didn’t have enough people to fill its buildings. Aside from the few teachers, Rhea hadn’t seen many adults in the time she stayed there, and even less people who lived there. Temperies was the same sort of sad in-between world that didn’t have a solid purpose unless you needed it.

The Fifty Minute Room reminded her of that, too, just so much more isolated and condensed. Rhea held no expertise in how the worlds worked, but the place around her gave off the same quiet vibe as the other two she had lived in. She couldn’t decide whether to be sad or comforted by the fact.

Soon enough, she stumbled upon a hallway where each door bared a nameplate. Rhea hadn’t seen any such thing when she woke up, but perhaps that was part of the change, too. Axel’s room was close to the end of the hallway, the one to the left baring the name _Saix_. To the right, Rhea found Sir (despite just having been in the kitchen when she had left minutes ago) hanging up a fresh nameplate and dusting his hands off on each other, satisfied with his work.

As expected, _Rhea_ was written across it in blue, the letters in a neat calligraphic script.

“Just in time,” the nondescript man said. It seemed the visual comforts didn’t quite apply to their hosts. Rhea didn’t mind too much, but she would need more time to adjust. “Again, we’re sorry about the delays, but everything should be set up now. We hope your stay in the Fifty Minute Room will be even more enjoyable now.”

Rhea stepped away from Axel’s door, resisting the urge to pound on it. That seemed like it would be against the rule of disturbing guests, and she didn’t feel like going back to school if she got kicked out. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, stepping inside her own room as Sir opened it for her. “You’ve been helpful for sure. I’m imposing on you, so you don’t have to go overboard for me.”

Sir shook his head with a soft smile. “The satisfaction of our guests is how we keep our business running after all. If you feel our comfort programming is lacking in any way, let us know and we’ll make adjustments accordingly.”

Rhea didn’t know how to feel about being so pampered. Even in the town with no name, she had never experienced something like the Fifty Minute Room. The Temperies dorms didn’t compare, either. The place she stood is was a singular experience.

“How _do_ you keep this place running?” she mused, crossing over to the couch in the center of the room. In shape, her new room reflected her dorm room in many ways, down to the furniture. The main difference was in the size it covered, with double the floor space. Extra furniture, such as the couch, filled in the space in an arrangement similar to the pure white set that had been in Axel’s room. The colors matched the rest of her Fifty Minute Room perception, dashes of yellow thrown in to spice up the mix.

Sir considered the question from the doorway. Realizing he wouldn’t move without permission, Rhea gestured for him to come inside. Sir crossed the threshold to the room, but not much further, letting the door close behind him.

“In which way do you want to know?” he asked, determining the question too much to be answered without clarification. Rhea guessed she had been rather broad. “A number of aspects go into managing the Fifty Minute Room. I don’t mind answering your questions, of course, but I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

Rhea dropped down onto the couch, folding her arms behind her head and stared at the ceiling. The image of a blue sky, clouds drifting over its surface, met her. “I guess like…financially?” she tried. “You don’t take money, but you have all this stuff and food to give us. Seems like an extensive charity if you ask me.” Heck, if there were places like this and Temperies, the amount of people clustered into the town with no name seemed unfair.

“Ah yes.” Sir put his hands together, the fingers creating a steeple against his pastel colored sweater. “Miss Rhea, how much value would you say you put into fifty minutes of your time?”

“Huh?” Rhea looked to her new bedside table, which held an alarm clock identical to the one in her dorm room. It didn’t display any numbers, though. “Well, I guess… That’s a class period. Or lunch hour? Or like…ten lower floors of the castle, five higher ones.” It was a sunny afternoon’s relaxation, a car ride with Roxas, looking for the distortion into the castle.

Sir nodded, crossing farther into the room. He took a seat on the opposite couch, keeping the dull wood coffee table between them. “So for you, those are the things one can accomplish in that period. For you, that’s the _value_ you place on fifty minutes.” He drew his finger over the table, glowing yellow lines creating images of the tasks she had mentioned. He circled them, then drew an hour towards the new image of an analog clock. “By sacrificing that time, you are losing the opportunity to accomplish these things. That value powers a deeper magic, and that is the core of our energy and resources.”

Rhea screwed up her face, trying to put together the logic. “But aren’t we…gaining time by being here? You said no matter how much time passes inside, it’s just fifty minutes for the guests outside.” Sir nodded. Rhea pointed to herself. “I mean, _I’ve_ already been here for several hours. This is totally a better deal for me to just hang around here and catch up on sleep.”

“That may be true, but would you be able to attend class or traverse in the castle you mentioned while here?”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“And _that_ is what you’re sacrificing by using our services.” Sir tapped each golden image in turn before they went up in shimmering sparks. Watching a projection of herself vanish wasn’t very encouraging. “Of course, the value you place on the specific amount of time you give up to us is less important than the concept to yourself. Not that your perception of the matter changes how we process your payment.” Sir stood and gave another bow, hand to his chest. “If you don’t mind, Miss Rhea, I have other work to attend to. But don’t hesitate to call on me or my wife should you need it.”

“Oh, yeah.” Rhea sat up straight, glancing at her knees in embarrassment before looking up. “Thanks for answering my questions. Really—”

But Sir had already vanished, and Rhea was alone again.

* * *

_Pinpricks of pain and light assaulted Rhea’s eyes. She gasped for air and slid down the wall. With her spotted vision, the black creature almost blended in with the shadows. It wasted no time in diving for Rhea again, a small but sharp tackle striking into her stomach once more. The blow carried enough force to make the girl cough up a thin trail of saliva and bile._

_For a moment, her thoughts held regret and fear. And then survival instinct kicked in like an upset horse, and Rhea lashed out at the black creature. Her palms struck the side of its head, sending it tumbling backwards to the opposite wall. It twitched, then jumped back onto its feet, tilting its large antennae while pupil-less yellow eyes observed the person who had just attacked it._

_Rhea caught enough wind to scream._

_The screech made the creature hesitate, and Rhea scrambled up onto her feet. She bolted down the hallway, but, not having any intentions to turn back before, didn’t know the path she had come from. Rhea rounded corners at random, putting space between her and the creature, its footsteps fading several halls later._

_Rhea propped herself up against a wall, failing to take controlled breaths to get her airflow back. Her legs still burned from the climb up, but she refused to sit. If the creature found her again, she didn’t want the disadvantage of being prone. Tears pressed hot lines down her cheeks, adrenaline and regret spiking her heartbeat._

I was wrong…

_She didn’t have much practice in fighting other than scuffles as a child, and she hadn’t watched anyone to even have a guess of what to do. She hadn’t brought anything for protection, not even a knife. She had almost grabbed one upon leaving, but had chosen not to._

_That amount of hesitation should have tipped her off where even her check that the door to the castle was still open had failed._

_Small footsteps approached. Rhea clasped her hands to her mouth, trying to stifle her sharp breaths—or sobs, she wasn’t sure anymore. Her palms pressed shaky imprints of sweat onto her face. She didn’t know what the creature was, but it had attacked her with intent. Her stomach still burned from the impact. There was a chance it could kill her. No._

_Rhea had walked into the castle knowing it _would_ kill her. And now she wanted out._

The door didn’t lock behind me. If I can just get downstairs, I can get out. I can make it.

_The creature’s footsteps continued, but Rhea could tell what hallway they were coming from thanks to the echoes. She slipped off her boots, goosebumps trailing up her legs at the press of the cold, stone floor against her feet. Keeping her steps light, Rhea headed in the opposite direction of the creature. For now, at least, putting distance between her and the enemy held the priority._

_Rhea checked around each corner before she rounded it. Every few minutes, she paused to listen in. After what felt like the eternity of a nightmare, the footsteps faded. This time, Rhea had kept track of her path and began to retrace her turns. She could do this. She just needed to stay calm._

_That calmness almost shattered when she checked around her next corner to find that the creature had a friend._

_Beside the strange black creature stood another one, identical in size, shape, and form. Or maybe the one that had attacked Rhea was elsewhere, and the ones in front of her were two new ones. She preferred the first option, as it kept her enemy count to two. Rhea pressed her back against the wall, stopping her boots before they could smack into the stone and give away her location._

Damn, damn, damn…

_Panic tore her mental map, already shoddy at best, into complete shambles. Had there been another way back to the stairwell? She couldn’t say. Everything blurred together, and nausea threatened to upend whatever Rhea had left in her stomach. She swallowed hard and prayed that when she checked around the corner again, the creatures would be gone._

_They weren’t._

_If anything, it looked like they were conversing amongst themselves, and a soft chittering reached Rhea’s ears. She didn’t understand a bit of it, other than the creatures collaborating couldn’t be good for her. Left without options, Rhea backtracked once again, choosing another hall in hopes that it would lead her to a stairwell._

_Which it did. Just one that was going up instead of down._

_“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” she whispered before she could stop herself. Rhea’s boots slipped from her hands, thumping against the floor. The sound echoed in the hall, competing with the rush of blood to her ears. No matter how Rhea tried to look at it, going up wouldn’t help. She needed to go down to get out, unless there happened to be a window facing outside she could jump from._

_The thought brought Rhea sinking to the ground and curling into a ball. _I made a mistake. I’m sorry. Please save me. Please take me home._ She muffled her fresh cries into her knees, not wanting to be found by the creatures even if sitting still was just making it easier for them._

_Sure enough, the advance of small footsteps crept up the hallway. Rhea looked over her shoulder to find a cluster of the black creatures approaching—five sets of bulbous glowing yellow eyes, five monsters. Rhea forced herself to stand, back to the stairs. The hall ran in a straight line, all exit blocked by the black creatures’ march. Several sets of dangling antennae twitched, and the monsters chittered, as if deciding an attack plan._

_Then the one at the forefront charged forward, hands raised just enough that Rhea could see the short points they formed at the end as it leapt straight at her. She had imagined a number of scenarios of her end before coming to the castle, but that had not been one of them._

_It had been what she had wanted, though._

_“But I don’t want to die!”_

_The cry surprised Rhea, as did the twack of her boot crashing into the creature’s head. It smacked against the wall, twitching from the impact. The rest of the creatures reacted, all rushing the girl head on. Armed with only footwear as a blunt weapon, Rhea spread her feet, ready to hold her ground._

Don’t be afraid. It’s not your time to go yet.

_The calm words echoed in Rhea’s mind, the voice of a girl she had never heard before. It spoke with kindness. Relief and confidence fell over her mental state, even as the monsters started their own attacks. Rhea shouted in defiance as she struck out, knocking two out of the air just as she had done the first. Her next swing went broad, and the third creature scratched a long, thin, stinging line through her shirt and up her forearm. The last of them attempted to tackle Rhea’s leg, and she kicked it in the face, feeling only a cold, dark sensation against her skin._

You should retreat. It’ll be too easy for you to get overwhelmed like this.

_“But the only way out is the stairs…” Rhea protested, fending off another blow. As much as she hated to lose ground, losing her life stood as the other option. No matter how much she struck at the creatures, they still stood up, and the outnumbered her five to one. _

_She didn’t need combat or tactical training to know the odds were _not_ in her favor._

If you go upstairs, I promise you’ll be safe. There’s someone very kind and strong up there. He’ll help you get out.

_Rhea sunk her elbow into the next approaching creature’s stomach, taking steps back as she could without letting down her guard. Listening to a disembodied voice counted close to stupid, but her whole plan in coming to the castle had been stupid, really. There wasn’t much other choice to be had in the moment._

_Taking a risky move with turning her back, Rhea spun around and sprinted up the stairs, a gash of pain scouring down her calf in the retreat._

* * *

To Axel, the Fifty Minute Room had always been bathed in the peaceful orange glow of twilight. So long as there were empty walls, windows let in the faint brush of fading or growing sunlight. The windows didn’t open, and the outside beyond them just an illusion, but Axel felt at peace in the atmosphere regardless.

It had been here that he had recovered.

And it had been here that he had found—

The redhead snorted at the new door next to his. For the longest time, his room had lied at the end of the hallway. With Rhea’s arrival, the halls had expanded to make room for her place. Her door reflected faint light off its cream surface, just like all the others. He thought of knocking, but decided against it. Judging by her reaction at breakfast, she was still hurt from the loss, and he wouldn’t do much to help.

That much, Axel could understand, so he respected it. For the time being.

_Why did I invite her here? Why did I think that was necessary?_ He kept asking himself that, even if the answers were obvious. This girl had known Roxas in the year between. In the year while Axel had spent more time sulking and coming to terms than anything else, she had stood by Roxas’s side and fought the best she could. She had filled in the gap where Axel once stood.

He wanted to know what had happened. How Roxas had been. What he had accomplished. Both inside the castle and out. Rhea was the key. Axel wanted that time back.

_You can’t get back the time you give to us, Dear,_ Madam had said a year ago, when Axel had first arrived. _That’s our absolute rule._

Axel had memorized it, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He knew exactly what it meant for his past, present, and future.

But that wouldn’t stop him from trying otherwise.


	6. Act I, Scene VI

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene VI: “They won’t respawn here for a while.”

* * *

Rhea knew lying around and sulking would just make her feel worse, but she lied around and sulked and let herself feel worse anyways. When she dragged over to the bed and flopped into the soft covers, the lighting dimmed down to a peaceful dark blue, just like it had done in Axel’s room. A faint bruise had formed on her stomach from the Heartless attack. Roxas would heal their wounds at the end of the day, but he had skipped over that in his foul mood.

_You’d think by now I’d know better than to leave my gut unguarded._

Her fingers poked over the wound, staring at the darkened sky across the ceiling. The clock broken, time slipped away without a way to track it. Could this whole event really take place within fifty minutes? When magic was involved, Rhea assumed anything was possible, but it still seemed hard to wrap her brain around.

“Well, the usual idea is to have breakfast in bed, but we do aim to please after all.”

Madam had entered the room without a noticeable sound. Rhea jabbed her own wound as she sat up, grunting. The smell of pasta and alfredo sauce stirred up the dull thrum of hunger to accompany the fresh wave of pain. Madam balanced the meal tray on one hand and produced a small support table from the air, green fragments sparking at the edges. The featureless woman wasted no time in completing the setup, giving Rhea easy access to her meal.

Lunch in bed. Just as promised.

“Thanks, but you didn’t have to,” Rhea mumbled. Her appetite argued otherwise, so she picked up the fork. Less subtle in smell, pieces of chicken made the dish look all the better.

“Tut, tut, Dear,” Madam scolded, not moving from her place beside the bed. “You forget that we have access to your idea of comfort here.” Considering Rhea has seen its effects, it was a stupid thing to forget. Then again, with thoughts of Roxas, maybe it was the logical result. “I’m afraid I can’t abide by a request to neglect someone. Not when their thoughts say otherwise.”

Rhea grimaced as she chewed. As much as she could, Madam looked concerned. “It’s fine. Just a bite of pepper,” the girl lied, even though it was pointless. Sir and Madam had long since proved their ability to see into her mind. She couldn’t tell whether to be relieved or terrified. “So no matter what, the things I really want will happen here.”

Madam nodded, keeping her hands folded behind her back. “Yes. Within reason, of course.”

So that meant that, no matter what she wanted, Roxas wouldn’t appear here. The Fifty Minute Room could only help those inside with themselves. With that being the case, Rhea felt she would be inside for a very, very long time. _And I went and ridiculed Axel like that._ No, he had been a jerk about the situation. But then again, she had been just as bad back.

The hostess of the Fifty Minute Room stood by, not stepping away. Unlike her husband, her business must still have been by Rhea’s side. Trying her best to follow the magic logic, Rhea put the pieces together.

_I want company, I’m just being too insecure to reach out for it._

That had always been the case. When Rhea had been left behind by her friends, she went home and cried about it. A bit older, when plans had to be cancelled, she spent time by herself. The last time in the town with no name, she had ran away to the castle.

And now, so it followed a year later, Rhea’s actions repeated once more. Being left alone meant the next stage was to abandon everything else, so it didn’t hurt.

Roxas had stopped that the last time. But now—

_Axel._

Rhea pushed tubes of noodle around her plate, eating half of what stuck to her fork. Meaningless patterns formed in the sauce before seeping shut. “You mentioned that we can’t bother other guests as part of the rules, but Axel said something that we can’t be perceived by them?” she chanced. “What does that mean?”

“Ah, the comfort algorithms.” Madam tapped her fingers across her chin. “As you guessed, you have my company now because it’s part of your desires. For others, some want and require solitude. For those that can withstand being seen, they will be, and those that don’t want to be hidden. You will never encounter someone you don’t want to, and the same will apply to you.”

_So if Axel really is pissed at me, I’ll never see him again._ What a comforting thought. But then again, she had seen others present, and there were a number of rooms in the hallway outside. She could, in theory, reach other people.

If she had the guts at all for that.

“This is in a way connected to the perception function,” Madam continued, following a train of thought Rhea hadn’t even realized she was having. “The Fifty Minute Room never turns away a guest, regardless of the current capacity.” Rhea’s own presence served as proof. “In order to prevent an overstimulation, not all guests are visible to you, even if they are present. If you were to enter a room, such as the dining area, but your perception of it were small, you would only see a number of people that could fit in that space, even if more were present.”

“Right…” Madame opened her mouth again at the confusion, but Rhea held up a hand, the other massaging her temple. “It’s okay. I don’t need to know everything about this place. Thank you for trying to help, though.”

Madame smiled with a small bow. “You’re welcome, Dear.” Rhea focused on eating the rest of her plate. The woman had to have better things to do than sit around and entertain her all day.

_Figure out what it is you need and get yourself back together before Roxas forgets you, too. Got it memorized?_

Rhea bit into her fork, sending a sharp sting up her molars. Never mind Axel being too pissed to see her. She might be too pissed to see him. Rhea scarfed down the rest of her plate, feeling the slightest bit of energy. “Hey, there’s got to be places for entertainment in here, right?” No one person could pass all their time doing nothing, even wrapped in an aura of comfort. The urge to move would overcome them sooner or later. Madame nodded. “Which direction? I think I need to stretch my legs.”

The hostess perked up at the request, gathering Rhea’s dishes the second the girl dropped her now empty glass of apple juice to the tray. “Back towards the dining area. There’s several doors. With your programming complete, you should be able to figure out which one is which easily.”

No longer in danger of knocking things over, Rhea shuffled out of the bedcovers and hopped to the floor. Unlike Sir’s sudden disappearance, Madam crossed to the door and, still balancing her meal set up, opened it for Rhea as she approached. Rhea nodded her thanks and headed down the hall, fiddling with the silver strings of her hoodie as she went.

* * *

_Rhea’s feet slapped against the stairs, and she almost slipped as the fresh trickle of blood leaked down to the sole of her foot. Her palm caught against the floor, but she managed to push herself around the bend and to the third floor. The halls looking near identical to those before them, Rhea prepared to run as fast as she could still manage._

Wait. You don’t need to go any farther.

_“But they’ll still be coming after me.” She mouthed the words more than she spoke them._

It’s okay. They can’t move past the staircases.

_Rhea paused. It seemed unbelievable, but there hadn’t been any sign of a follow-up attack. Using the nearby wall for support, she turned around, expecting to see an eruption of black limbs, waiting for the sting of pain. Neither came. Cautious, Rhea took small steps forward, boots still clutched in her hands and ready to swing._

_Several minutes must have passed. Still no monsters, no death. Given she had followed the voice in the opposite direction she needed to go, she might as well trust the advice given. It was believe or become trapped._

_“Okay,” she agreed, though she didn’t dare look down the stairs further. Whether the monsters were stupid or something about the castle kept them from advancing, Rhea didn’t want to chance stepping into their range. “So which way do I go now?”_

_The voice remained silent, though Rhea’s ears popped._

_The girl kicked at the floor, wondering if the voice just needed a moment to figure out directions. The floor scraped at the bottom of her foot, and the sting of pain from the cut in her leg resurfaced. Rhea swiped her palm against the wound, blood sticking to her fingers and soaking into her pant leg. The cut was shallow, and the flow had already stymied. It would need cleaned to avoid infection, but she’d otherwise be okay._

_Rhea rolled up her pants midway up her calves, ready to put back on her boots, but stopped. Running around without proper support didn’t bode well, but the footwear served as the only weapon she had. Wearing just one would throw off her balance. Not willing to go without some form of protection, Rhea sighed and hefted her boots up in one hand._

_The girl’s voice hadn’t spoken again._

_Rhea focused on double-checking her surroundings._

_Like her precursory glance, the hall did look identical to the one below it, down to the one-way staircase Rhea had come up. Lit torches hung from the walls, but lacked any smell of smoke or burning. There were no windows from her position. It would have been nice to have a clue of how deep into the building she was, but there were no distinguishable landmarks._

Well, the girl said someone up here would help me get out. _Assuming it wasn’t a lie or that Rhea hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing. No, she needed to stay positive. _But who the heck would come into a place like this? There’s no way someone lives here. Not with monsters all over the place._ Rhea hadn’t even come across a proper room once. _This castle just appeared one day. What in the world is it for?

_If she had had those answers, she wouldn’t be standing inside now. She would have found another way to disappear. Rhea shuddered at the thought and stepped forward. She wouldn’t find anyone by just standing around. And on the off chance that more monsters passed by, she at least didn’t want to be cornered between them and the ones on the floor below._

_Rhea kept her right hand to the stone wall as she walked, boots dangling from her left. She kept her steps quiet and once again paused every so often to listen. Now that she knew what dangers were in store, she wouldn’t get caught off guard again. She would make it out of this, no matter what._

_Her idle thoughts on what she would do when she returned home were cut off by the sound of a shout. Rhea jumped and pressed her back against the wall, eyes flicking to both ends of the hallway. Nothing appeared from the corners, but a second shout came from the direction Rhea had been heading, followed by a crash. She couldn’t tell what had been hit or where, but something had made an impact._

_“Haaah!” When Rhea focused, she could make out the tone of voice to be tenor. Furthermore, it didn’t sound afraid. Another triumphant shout echoed down the hall. Was it the boy the voice had mentioned? Curiosity and hope overrode any doubts, and she sprinted forward, following the growing racket._

Is he…fighting?

_Fighting was the correct word for it. Catching up to the source, Rhea recoiled at the sight of several of the black creatures came into view, one the same shape but much bigger than the rest included. Facing them down alone was a boy swinging some sort of sword. A broad swing knocked several of the creatures out of the way, then he focused on one, striking it until it disappeared._

_It had vanished._

_Gone up in fragments of darkness._

_The boy didn’t stop. With another shout, he did the same to another monster before catching several of them in the following swing. The largest monster took the chance, swiping its claws at the boy and catching him in the side. Rhea gasped; the boy grunted and returned the hit, even as the smaller ones surrounded them._

_Rhea tried to move, to swing her boots again in what little help she could muster, but her feet refused from fear. She tried to shout a warning, but her voice did the same._

_It didn’t matter. The boy retreated a few steps, then started up his assault again. If the monster’s strike had done any damage, the boy didn’t show it. He kept fighting at the enemies, taking them down one by one. Rhea stared in awe._

_The voice had been right; the boy could help her get out of the castle._

But what’s he doing here in the first place?

_That didn’t matter so much as what he could do for her. Rhea decided not to ask him, so long as he wouldn’t ask her. It didn’t seem like a pleasant conversation on either part. Her hope cracked as the largest monster got another hit in, this one sending the boy down and rolling across the ground._

_The dam in Rhea’s throat broke free. “Please! Get up!”_

_The boy’s eyes shot open, leaving Rhea stunned by their vibrant blue. The remaining monsters noticed her, too, torn between going after their downed opponent or new prey. Rhea stepped back towards her exit, but didn’t regret her choice to speak._

_The three remaining smaller monsters stepped towards Rhea. The boy moved faster._

_His weapon—was that…a giant key?—flashed in the firelight, clanging into the nearest monster and scattering it into darkness. The next monster met the same fate. The large one, which had never abandoned pursuit of its original target, swung at the boy’s back. He turned to dodge. The last small monster besieged Rhea, who stood ready._

_The satisfaction of the impact left a grin across the girl’s face, even if the monster didn’t disappear like the others. She couldn’t do much, but at least she wasn’t entirely dead weight. The monster took another shot at her, and Rhea retaliated in kind. The larger black creature continued to swing at the blonde boy, but was stopped as he snuck in multiple strikes under its guard. _

_The large monster went up in darkness moments later, and Rhea knocked her enemy across the floor. The blonde boy wasted no time in defeating that one, too, and soon it was only him and Rhea in the room. They both caught their breath, staring at each other, in disbelief someone else existed in front of them._

_The boy’s stern expression from battle cracked as his eyes flicked over Rhea’s leg. “You’re hurt!” he said, crossing the room to her in seconds. “Sit down. I’ll treat it.”_

_Unsure of what to do, Rhea stammered, “B-but the monsters.” You knew things were a mess when fighting made more sense than actual human interaction. The voice from earlier, being disembodied, didn’t count. _

_“They won’t respawn here for a while,” the boy assured, already leaning down to attempt to look at Rhea’s calf. “Please, let me help you.” Overwhelmed by the fussing, Rhea sat down, heat burning at her cheeks._

This is dumb.

But he really is kind.

_For a moment, nothing happened, though the boy mouthed silent words. “Cura,” he whispered after a few moments, and a green light washed over Rhea. When it faded, her injury had closed and she felt much lighter, like she hadn’t climbed for several hours to get to the castle before running for her life inside it. The boy smiled. “There. All good.”_

_Rhea nodded like an idiot, not sure of what to do next. She needed to get out, but it would be rude to demand something like that. Did she need to introduce herself? Did it matter? Just what was she supposed to do now? The voice from before didn’t have any input to the situation._

_“Thanks,” she decided on. A smile formed on her own lips without thinking about it. “I couldn’t even hurt those things, but you took them out like they were nothing. You were amazing.” She didn’t even consider how her words could sound like empty praise to gain his favor. She was that impressed._

_The boy grimaced a bit. “Ah…not really.” Rhea looked away. Had she said something wrong already? “I just have the right tools for the job is all.” That made sense. Comparing a boot to…whatever kind of sword he had been using didn’t seem fair. Speaking of the weapon, it was already gone from sight. _

_Rhea decided not to ask. She’d experienced enough strangeness for one day._

_“But how’d you get up here?” Rhea stiffened at the question. “I mean, I know I cleared out the lower floors, but there still should have been some Heartless…” The girl relaxed, realizing the boy had meant inside the castle, not getting up to it. That made much more sense. “Oh, no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bug you like that.” He cleared his throat, then offered a gloved hand. “I’m Roxas. Thanks for helping me.”_

_Rhea let out a self-depreciating laugh before she could stop it. “I’m sure I wasn’t much help.” She tapped the side of her discarded footwear. “Boot warrior here can’t do much help.”_

_“You still tried,” Roxas insisted, and Rhea looked at him. Really looked at him. Aside from his hair and eyes, which both stuck out as a rare dash of color in the castle, he was skinny, though a black and silver hoodie covered most of his physique. If she had to guess, he was close to her age, though the rounded edges of his face made it hard to tell. “You could’ve just used me as a decoy and moved on, but you didn’t.”_

_She couldn’t read the emotion in his voice, though it sounded an awful lot like hurt. Saying that she had been looking for him seemed to be the best option, but also would lead to awkward questions. Strategy had never been Rhea’s strong point, even less so when referring to the social variety. So she put those thoughts aside the moment, and said what she thought she should._

_“I’m Rhea and…thank you for saving me.”_


	7. Act I, Scene VII

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene VII: “Of course it’s blank. Now stop making such a ruckus.”

* * *

Rhea found the described hallway just past the dining hall within a matter of minutes. Much like the guest room doors, the same blue met her eyes, yellow doorplates naming each location. Rhea poked her head into the library, the room just as quiet as the hall outside it. It didn’t improve much over her situation in her room, but the chance of running into someone was stronger in a public space.

She had expected a replica of the school’s library, but the shelves were made of an immaculate wood that shined in the pseudo (she assumed. There hadn’t been any windows so far to prove her otherwise) sunlight. Lush green carpet supported her feet, curved staircases ran up the sides of the room to shelves and floors above, and the walls looked nothing less like Rhea had stepped inside of a very large and hollowed out tree.

“Wow,” she whispered, frozen in the doorway for a moment. She shook her head, clearing out her awe for the moment, and turned the knob so as not to make a sound when she shut the door.

Even the air smelled like spring and bark and life. So far, the Fifty Minute Room had seemed like a very long and trans-dimensional hallway. The view proved the place had a vertical element to it, too.

_Or is that just because it fits inside my perception of a comfortable library?_ Rhea didn’t know where the thought could have come from. They didn’t have anything like this in the town with no name. It sounded like a story Roxas would tell. _No, don’t do that. You came here to stop being such an isolated pansy. At least read a damn book._

The girl climbed the first step of stairs, craning her neck to see the second floor above, its wooden railing preventing falls. The handrail under Rhea’s palm felt like a fallen tree branch, somehow splinter free. She wondered if it was even possible to get hurt in the Fifty Minute Room, and decided she would rather not find out.

The bookshelves along the first floor had all been small two and three shelf affairs. Those on the second floor were a gulf away in comparison, and it would take a ladder to reach the top. Not having picked up a book in a while, Rhea decided to take a climb instead of puzzling it out.

The ladder looked thin, but it proved sturdy against Rhea’s weight, not even bending. She dropped all thought while scaling the ladder, focusing on the churn of her muscles and keeping her breaths even. That much activity was easy in comparison to scaling the castle floors.

The spines around her flashed in brilliant color, a literate person’s chest of jewels. Rhea stopped, plucking a book from the shelf without looking at the title. Hooking one arm around the closest rung of ladder, Rhea let the book open across her palm.

“It’s blank?”

“Of course it’s blank. Now stop making such a ruckus.”

Rhea slapped the book shut so she wouldn’t drop it, then gazed down at the source of the voice. She had climbed quite a far way up, and the person below her looked nothing more than an outline with gray hair. Not Axel, then. Rhea couldn’t tell whether to feel grateful or disappointed.

Rhea tucked the book into her jacket pocket, then turned the face the bookshelf. She had remembered to grab her hoodie from the laundry, but not her gloves. She would have to ask Madam about them later. In their stead, she wrapped the ends of her sleeves around her hands before sliding down the ladder.

The rush of wind and gravity sent up Rhea’s hair and hood. One of the jacket’s silver drawstrings smacked her in the face. The impact with the floor sent a thud up from her body through the tips of her fingers, but Rhea brushed it off and turned to face her fellow guest.

He didn’t look impressed.

Upon closer inspection, his hair seemed as much a mess as Axel’s, just in the downward direction of a fringe covering half his face. Even so, he seemed a bit older than her. A white button-up stood out against the rest of his dark attire. A rather large book rested tucked under his arm, but Rhea couldn’t tell what it was.

She waited for the guy to say something. He didn’t.

“So, um…” Roxas led their conversations when Rhea got stuck. The guy didn’t seem to follow the same approach. “I’m Rhea. Nice to meet you?”

The words weren’t meant to be question, but they sounded like one anyways. “Zexion,” he sighed, the harsh _x_ making his name carry more bite than Rhea hoped he had intended. “I can’t say it’s nice, but well met anyways. I’d heard we had a new guest among us, but I didn’t expect to meet you here.” From the tone of his voice, Rhea got the impression he hadn’t wanted to.

_Well, sucks for him. If he really wants me gone he can say so._ Rhea bounced on her toes and put on her best social smile. “Yeah, I got here last—” _Last night_ didn’t quite apply in a place that existed in its own stream of time. “New arrival,” she corrected. “But, hey, what were you saying about the books being blank?”

Zexion stared at Rhea for what felt like a good long while before relenting. “This library looks well stocked, but that’s for appearance. The Fifty Minute Room runs off cognitive impulses. That includes the literature.” He pointed to the volume sticking out of Rhea’s hoodie. “That book can contain the exact same content as any of the other books here, depending on what you aim to read.”

“Huh.” Rhea thought of a picture book she had read as a child and plucked the book from her pocket. The cover didn’t change from plain red, but its spine shrank in her hand, and opening it showed the colorful images, just as she’d remembered. Shutting the volume, she concentrated on the image of her English textbook, stretching the book’s spine and tripling its weight. “Neat!”

“Yes, I suppose,” Zexion said, though the slight quirk of his lips showed he was more in agreement than he lent on. “Overall, it’s supposed to be a matter of convenience. This place has more of an…atmospheric quality to it otherwise.”

Rhea nodded, thinking of a more reasonable volume to shrink her book down to. When it was pocket sized again, Rhea tucked it away and tried not to look too nervous at the conversation. “I get that. I thought this place would be peaceful…” Remembering the guy’s earlier words, she frowned. “Sorry. Did I make that much noise?”

“Not as much as you’re making now.” Ouch. This one had a sharp tongue. “But even the smallest of sounds carries in such a quiet place. Do try to remember that.”

“Memorize it, huh?” Rhea quipped before catching herself. Eh, fuck it, Axel wasn’t around to poke fun at her anyway. Or whatever he would do. Even though they’d only talked enough times to count on one hand, she hated that she couldn’t figure him out. “Well, if it’s for convenience’s sake, that big book isn’t doing you any favors. What is it anyways?” At this point, Rhea couldn’t tell if she was still talking to annoy the guy or because she was lonely.

_Both, if we’re being honest here._

Zexion gripped onto the volume in question. Had she hit a weak spot? He looked defensive. “This is from the outside, so it doesn’t follow the same rules.” Well, Rhea still had her phone, so bringing along personal items seemed to be okay. She wondered if there was a limit. “It’s not something you could understand, though.”

Rhea scowled at the implication. “Okay, just because I don’t use a tome twice the size of my head as a security blanket doesn’t mean I’m stupid,” she snapped before she could think better of it. The girl trapped her tongue between her incisors to prevent further incident. Ever since Roxas had kicked her out of the car, the words of strangers all felt like personal attacks. Sir and Madam seemed to be the exceptions.

“And I never said you were,” Zexion said, “though I may be considering it now.” Well, Rhea deserved that one. “There are powers between the worlds that some people can access and others cannot. You are not someone who can access this.” He waved the book across his chest before securing it back in place. “You cannot change natural aptitude without consequences. _That_ is what I meant.”

“Oh.” It probably had to do with magic, then. Despite Roxas’s best efforts, she had never been able to pick it up, though that might have been since he wasn’t the best teacher. Rhea tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “While I’m being rude and all, I might as well tell you that you could’ve worded that _much_ better the first time.”

“I could say the same of you.”

_Touché._ “Well, if we’re all done taking pot shots at each other’s self-esteem, maybe we can make some progress.” Rhea tried to grin. Yikes, still awkward. This was what she got for talking to one single person for a whole year. “You probably…just want me to shut up so you can get your peace and quiet back.”

“Well, you could’ve worded that better the first time,” Zexion said, with just enough levity that Rhea dared to think he had made a joke, “but in essence you’re right. Time may be more relative here than other places, but I do use it as a refuge for my research. I’d rather spend my energy wisely.”

“I got ya. I’ll get out of your hair then.” Which she probably should have done in the first place. At least the effort had netted her a new—friend? No, definitely not. Acquaintance, then. “I hope your research goes well.” With a book that big and ominous looking, it couldn’t be easy.

Zexion nodded, his expression ghosting over for a moment. Rhea hadn’t been paying enough attention to read it. “Yes, I hope so, too. Do keep the noise down, will you?” he said, like she hadn’t heard it the first time. Then he retreated along the bookshelf Rhea had climbed before disappearing behind its corner. Whether or not he planned to see her later was anyone’s guess.

Rhea kept her mouth shut, not wanting to earn another scolding. But that didn’t mean her thoughts needed similar filters. _Is it just me, or is everyone here a pain in the ass?_

Maybe it making that conclusion after talking with just two people didn’t hold up very well, but finding a quiet corner to read in was more important than silly things like that.

* * *

_For a moment, Roxas looked caught off guard by the words. Then, a smile blossomed over his face, fresh as spring flowers._

_“I’m glad I could help!” he said, like the praise meant the world to him. “I need to get to the top of the castle but…you don’t have a weapon with you, huh? It’d be dangerous to bring you further in…”_

He’s…trying to get to the top of the castle? No, focus. You need to get out._ “Sorry. I don’t want to interrupt you, but…”_

_Roxas shook his head. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t be alright with just leaving you here. Let’s get downstairs and get you home.”_

_Home. The word stung worse than the wound on Rhea’s wound had pre-healing. She knew her home lied between the hills, in the town with no name, but going back seemed like a defeat of some sort. She couldn’t stay in the castle, though. She would die there. That wasn’t what she wanted anymore._

I’ll deal with home when I get there. But I need to get out first for any of that to even matter.

_Roxas stood and checked over his jacket to get ready. Rhea tugged her boots back on, did the laces up tight, and stood as well. She hadn’t noticed the way she had favored her good leg until she was able to balance her weight between both. The blood had dried along her calf, and flaked through the pressure from her pants and boot, but she dealt with it._

_“All good to go?” Roxas asked. Rhea nodded. “Okay. I’m gonna try to go fast so we don’t trigger any respawn areas, but yell at me if you can’t keep up, alright?”_

_“Got it.” With that, Roxas sat off at a run, and Rhea jogged behind him. All the walls still looked the same, but Roxas made turns with certainty, and soon they were back at the downward staircase. _

_Roxas paused for Rhea to catch her breath. “You doing good?”_

_“I’ll be fine,” Rhea said, once again trying to get a closer look down the stairs. The voice hadn’t said anything else, but the last words Rhea had heard were spoken here. If the girl had any thoughts on Rhea’s successful find of Roxas, she didn’t voice them. “I did leave a group of those monsters at the stairs, though. Just so you’re ready.”_

_“Heartless, huh?” Roxas lifted his hand like he still held his weapon. “Well, they’re pretty weak this far down. I’ll be able to handle them. No worries, Rhea.” He grinned before his expression hardened and he stepped down the stairs. Rhea followed after him, taking each stair at half the boy’s pace._

_She expected the Heartless to still be scrambling at the stairs. Instead, the hall was clear, stretching out before them. Roxas took a deep breath and held out a hand, signaling Rhea to stay put. She clasped her hands together, trying to release the pressure building in her throat._

_Roxas charged forward. Feet in front of him, the Heartless bubbled up from the ground, all five that Rhea had left behind. The key-shaped sword formed in Roxas’s hand mid swing. Without a larger monster to back them up, Roxas made short work of the Heartless, his weapon vanishing the instant the danger had cleared._

He said he wasn’t amazing, but excuse me if I don’t believe it.

_“Okay, the coast’s clear,” Roxas called. Rhea approached his side. “I don’t think there’ll be too many more on the way down, but just stay back if a fight breaks out. I promise I’ll get you out of here without any trouble.”_

_Rhea could only agree and carry on. Like on the floor above them, Roxas seemed to know the path, and they were down the stairs after a short fight with a few more Heartless. It made Rhea’s own wandering trek look like a marathon. No monsters reappeared on the first floor, either, and soon the two pushed open the doors, cool night air pressing into Rhea’s lungs. She hadn’t noticed how stagnant the air inside had been._

_She hadn’t noticed how adrenaline had been fueling her every step._

_Rhea collapsed into a heap on the stairs._

_“You okay?” Roxas asked, kneeling down to her side. Rhea tried to catch her breath before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Uh, Rhea…?”_

_“I’m okay.” She was okay. And not trapped. And alive. It relieved her more than she would have thought. Rhea stared up at the sky, with its ever present night and moon and stars. “I just didn’t think I’d see this view again, you know?”_

_Roxas scratched the back of his head, not sure of how to respond. Rhea cursed her own stupidity in mentioning it, but what was done was done. If Roxas figured out the real reason she had entered the castle, then so be it. The boy looked around, his gaze dodging all over the place, and Rhea turned her head to the other side._

_The boy coughed, and Rhea’s heart jumped as he caught her attention. “So, you’re from that town down there, right? It’s always lit up, so I notice it when I come here, but it’s too far away to go and visit.”_

_Rhea looked out across the face of her world. Even when up against the castle door, you could still see the town with no name lit up in the distance. Rhea couldn’t believe she had walked that far in one go. Even with Roxas’s healing magic, she felt like she could sleep for days. There was no way she could make it that far without having to rest first._

Am I really thinking about going back?

_“I guess I’m curious about it. And here. I mean, I’ve only tried getting to the top of the castle, so I haven’t explored anywhere else.” Roxas adjusted so he sat next to Rhea proper on the steps. “What’s it like?”_

_“It’s nothing special,” Rhea whispered. A sky that never left night, never granted the sun. A quiet town overflowing with empty people. A place where people would pick you up and toss you out when they got bored. A very, very cruel place._

_Hot tears spilled from Rhea’s eyes. When she tried to breathe, the air caught on a sob. She tucked her knees into her chest and hugged them, reaching for a sense of security as she cried._

_Roxas stammered between condolences before falling silent. And then his hand reached out to pat Rhea’s shoulder. His leather glove creaked, but the gesture felt warm._

_“No, don’t…” he tried. “I mean, I don’t know what you’re going through, but you don’t want to go back there, do you?” Rhea bawled in reply, shaking her head. “It doesn’t look like there’s anywhere else to go in this world.” There wasn’t. That’s why she had tried the castle. “But I can take you somewhere else if you want.”_

_Rhea lifted her head and looked to Roxas. Even in mere moonlight, his eyes held a bright blue unlike any she had seen before._

_“If you really don’t want to stay here, Rhea, you can come with me.”_

* * *

“How is she doing?” Madame asked.

“She’s making progress,” Sir answered. “But there’s still time before her heart can properly heal. You know how it is.”

“Yes, but I’m still glad we can help someone out. There isn’t much we can do here, but…”

“We’re doing as we can, my dear. For some people, that’s enough. Most wounds can be healed with time.”

“But the rest require care and love.”

“Is that what you noticed then?”

“We can’t do this entirely with our support. Her hurt runs far deeper than family affection. She needs that, but she’ll need more.”

“Friendship, of course. Everyone needs someone.”

“She holds the Mark of Relationship.”

“I see…”

“That point is still far off for her. But it’s what’s required for her to heal. It will come in time, I know, but I worry she can’t find that here, or she’ll give up on herself beforehand. I don’t think even my words will be able to reach her then.”

Sir let out an affectionate chuckle. “So determined to take care of everyone. But your words aren’t the only ones out there, my darling.”

“You’re right, I know, but I do still worry.”

“Things will be fine. We just need to put her on the right path. The rest will work itself out in time, so long as she continues to step forward. Now, let us tend to our guests. It’s a never ending job, I’m afraid.”

“But it’s the one we chose together. I’m glad to do this beside you.”

Without exchanging pleasantries, the couple split apart. Axel held his position against the wall, not moving until their footsteps had faded. The perpetual twilight around him refused to dim.

_Is that how it is, then?_


	8. Act I, Scene VIII

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene VIII: “Go ahead, tell me about it.”

* * *

Axel took his best guess at when Rhea would arrive at the lunch room, which was tricky given the lack of time passing inside the Fifty Minute Room. In theory, if one waited long enough, they would encounter the one they were looking for. Unless the one they were looking for didn’t want to be found, but Axel would take his chances. He tended to do well with that modus operandi.

Most of the time.

In his current plan, it was indeed “most of the time.”

Rhea stepped through the door at Axel’s approximate guess of thirty minutes after he had arrived. His own plate sat empty, but loitering was free. In his view of the room, a cluster of tables held close to each other, the collective space no bigger than a longue. Just enough space that someone could keep their distance from the others, but not enough that you could just ignore them.

Not that his view mattered to Rhea’s course of actions. Their visions could contrast—that held more likely than anything else. But the girl glanced at him as she headed to the back of the room to pick up her meal, so she at least noticed him.

_That’s a step, I guess._

Axel toyed with his fork and watched her. In terms of stature, she matched Roxas fairly well. He could be excused for his mistake in the castle, given her hood had been up then. With it down, her light brown hair fell in soft waves, tucking into the back of her jacket. Said jacket, black with silver linings, hadn’t helped with the confusion, as it matched Roxas’s own.

And matched Axel’s as well.

Rhea turned around, and Axel turned his gaze back on his plate, even if nothing remained to keep his interest. They had grated on each other’s nerves enough earlier that openly watching her couldn’t be the smartest move. He did, however, track her in his peripheral, until she stood in front of him, rendering caution unnecessary.

“Hey, um,” she said, just short of a mumble, “sorry for being a bitch earlier. Mind if I sit here?”

Her eyes held a faint hazel and worry. She hadn’t done too well after Roxas had ditched her; Axel couldn’t criticize since he had much been the same. The sting of abandonment still pulsed in him a year later. The intensity of that within the first few days must’ve dug even deeper for Rhea. Rejecting the request would just be petty.

If Axel wanted to learn anything about Roxas’s past year, he couldn’t afford to be petty.

The redhead tapped the round table with his knuckle. Rhea nodded her thanks and took the seat across from him. A still sizzling hamburger sat on her plate, various condiments along the side. Rhea assembled her burger, vegetables first, sauces second, her eyes darting across the room.

Axel realized she was waiting for a response, and found himself stuck for a second.

“Don’t be so skittish,” he scolded, sticking to casual terms. No matter how much he wanted to ask about Roxas, jumping the gun wouldn’t help. So long as Rhea didn’t leave the Fifty Minute Room, time didn’t present an issue. “I’ll forgive your outburst if you forgive mine, how about that?”

Rhea frowned. Axel thought on his words from breakfast, wondering if that was enough. Well, the girl had shot back at him instead of recoiling from the insult, so she seemed tougher with words than her combat levels. She could take it.

“You don’t really mean that,” Rhea concluded, “but alright.” When Axel didn’t argue, her shoulders dropped. _She guessed, then. That’s an instinctual distrust of others there._ Once more, Axel held the same values. It was almost disorienting. “At the very least, we’re in the same boat. As people who once explored the castle, I guess that almost makes us comrades, huh?”

She left out the part where they had been abandoned by the same guy. It could’ve been out of consideration or protection of her own ego. Axel couldn’t tell, but there was no sense in complaining.

“Not the best thing to be comrades over, but I’ll take it,” the redhead allowed. He had fought for worse causes. Rhea, satisfied with the layout of her meal, pressed the top bun onto her burger and took a bite. “This isn’t to be rude, but you’re not the best fighter. People like you don’t make it long in places like that.”

Rhea grimaced, but didn’t fire back an insult. At least she knew her limits. “I played support,” she said, once she had swallowed. “Ro… I got basic instruction in my daggers, and then ran around as a decoy when things got tough. That’s about what I’m good for.” She eyed Axel, her gaze dragging up and down his frame before locking on his empty plate. “You, on the other hand, can handle thirty floors of the castle on your own. So which one of us is more unusual?”

Axel barked out a laugh and tapped his temple. “We’re both unusual. Got it memorized?”

Rhea sighed and took another bite of her burger. Axel didn’t drag around the same words just to annoy people, but for this girl, he could make an exception.

“Anyway, I had lots of time to train, and magic to back me up,” he explained, indicating the space around them. The Fifty Minute Room had contributed to most of his power increase in the past year. Skipping Temperies classes could do wonders under the right conditions. Rhea looked thoughtful, but seemed to understand. “Going through the castle with a partner is better, though, but I didn’t want to miss my chance.”

The girl’s eyes narrowed, in contrast to the fresh bite of food she had taken. A mix of mayonnaise and ketchup dripped onto her plate. She swallowed hard in haste to demand an answer. “Your chance at what, exactly?”

Axel guessed the truth wouldn’t improve her mood. Better than dealing with the fallout later. Until she could tell him more, they were in this together. Or, rather, Axel was in this and would drag Rhea along for as much time as he needed to. “To run into Roxas again,” he answered, pointing his finger without a destination. “I had to check how the spell had progressed before making any other moves. He treated me like an enemy, so it’s the same as always.”

Rhea’s frown deepened, creases unbefitting of her age pinching between her eyebrows. “And who’s to say you aren’t an enemy?” she retorted. “It’s not like he doesn’t recognize you. He got pissed when I tried to ask what your deal was. For all I know, you could be making this shit up to get me on your side.” She sat her half-eaten hamburger down and tapped a knuckle to the table in irritation. “I’m not about to fall for something so stupid. You got me?”

“Your suspicion is much appreciated,” Axel retorted, not bothering to keep his voice even. “I could suspect you, too. I mean, you’re a sub-par supporter and you can’t hold a fight on your own. You could’ve been leading Roxas into trouble. But you know what? I’m not going to do that. And you know why?

“Because I’ve felt the exact hurt you’re experiencing right now. I see the way you hold onto his memory. And I know that Roxas is one of the kindest, hardworking people I’ve ever met, and there’s no way you could spend an entire year around him and not be touched by that.”

Rhea’s hard expression slipped, and she didn’t try to maintain it. The girl picked up a stray piece of lettuce, twirling it by the stem. “Okay, fine,” she allowed, keeping better pace on her words. “So you know Roxas is still under a curse or whatever, and I’m officially banned from the castle raiding party. Where the heck does that leave us?”

Axel knew where it left _him_—but that didn’t answer much for the collective. “Well, I’ve already told the results to someone that can help with the spell; we’ll just have to sit and wait on that front.” Again, with the Fifty Minute Room, time was on their side. “As for you…” Madam had mentioned the Mark of Relationship, but from what little Axel knew, he couldn’t help with that. Plus that counted as secret information, so he couldn’t spill it over dinner, or inside the Room even. “No offense, but you don’t seem to have sorted yourself out at all.”

“I’m trying,” Rhea grumbled, picking up her burger and taking an angry bite. Axel chose not to guess what she was envisioning. “There’s…a lot to take in here. And a lot to think about with what happened.” For someone who hopped dimensions between Temperies and the castle on a regular basis, she didn’t hold much experience in such matters. Axel couldn’t even fathom how Roxas had recruited her.

No, that was easy. He had been his friendly, caring self. The circumstances around that point begged attention.

“So then you should stay here and rest.” Beyond thinking it as the best course of action, Axel needed to keep Rhea in one place. She’d be of better use once she had calmed down. “Overcome those doubts you’re having.” Axel considered his next words, then went with throwing Rhea a bone. “If you can’t do that much, you’ll just be a burden while storming the castle.”

Rhea dropped the remains of her burger with a splat. Condiments flecked onto her shirt and the table, then faded out as the Fifty Minute Room corrected itself. The girl’s hazel eyes shone, unconcerned with the state of her food. “You mean you’ll take me in there with you?”

Axel leaned back in his seat, balancing the chair on its back legs. “Well, I hate to admit it—” and he really did “—but you’re the best shot I have right now of getting Roxas to listen to me.” Rhea held her glass of soda between both hands, giving off too dainty of an image for her foul mouth. “And you seem like the type to bother me until I agree to let you help, so I’m just getting that part out of the way.”

“You’ve got that right,” Rhea confirmed with a smirk. “I didn’t expect you to read people so easily. Maybe you’re smarter than I thought.”

Axel abandoned his equilibrium and the front of his chair hit the floor, jabbing an erstwhile index finger to his temple. “You hear yourself? This brain can memorize anything you throw at it. Don’t go saying stuff like that to someone you’re asking for help!”

“Sorry, but you’re so easy to insult it just happens naturally.” Axel prepared to fire back before Rhea let out a laugh. She tried to cover her mouth, but the giggles broke free. The redhead sat back up, allowing himself a chuckle. Even griping at someone felt better than the past year on his own.

Longer than a year, even. _How much time have I put into this place?_

“So, um,” Rhea hedged. She poked at her scattered burger, not intending to eat the rest. “Is there anything I can do until then? I know I need to stop shutting myself in alone, but that’s hard and…” The girl bit her lip. She may not have been on the urge of tears, but that didn’t stop sympathy from stinging at Axel’s chest. “I guess I wanna ask if I can talk to you and stuff? I get it if that sounds dumb, but—”

“Doesn’t bother me.” It couldn’t have worked out better, in all honesty. Rhea stared at him in surprise, then nodded. “I mean, you’re not gonna have too much luck talking to some of the others here. And, besides, we have a common goal. I was planning on hanging around until you got back on your feet, so we won’t have trouble coordinating times, either.”

Rhea’s face screwed up at the concept of coordinating in a place without time. Axel could say with experience that it was just as convoluted and confusing as it sounded. “Okay. Great. Thanks.” She smiled a little. “Though, I don’t know much to talk about. My hometown was pretty boring, and you know all about the castle, so…”

_That’s exactly what I need to know about,_ Axel thought, but didn’t voice it. He needed baby steps. They’d get there in time. “Well, where are you from?” he asked, keeping it basic. “Not many newcomers find their way into Temperies.” As far as he knew, Rhea had been the first. “Your home can’t be as boring as that empty ghost town. Go ahead, tell me about it.”

Rhea’s mouth flapped in silence for a few beats, then she spluttered, “You first.”

That hadn’t been the response Axel had been expecting.

“Better yet,” he said, not ready to tell that story just yet, if ever, “why don’t I tell you when Roxas and I found the castle in the first place.”

Rhea set to attention, not even caring her question had just been deflected.

* * *

_“You keep looking at me weird. What’s that all about?”_

_Axel tried not to think too hard as he met gazes with the blonde kid. Bright blue eyes didn’t let up for a second, at least until Roxas sighed and looked to the ground. Axel quirked an eyebrow, propped a hand on his hip, and waited._

_“It’s because you look different,” Roxas said, sounding embarrassed to admit it. Axel could agree his hair and height tended to make him eye-catching in most crowds. Being in the empty courtyard outside Temperies didn’t help much either. “I mean it’s…okay, promise you won’t laugh or call me crazy or anything.”_

_Axel chuckled, which didn’t help his case. Roxas looked torn between feeling hesitant or scowling. “Sorry. I’ve just encountered a lot of weird stuff in my lifetime. I can promise whatever you’re gonna tell me, I’ll at least give it a chance before dismissing it.”_

_Some would argue that ‘weird’ didn’t even begin to describe Axel’s experiences, but he wasn’t in the mood to split hairs. This gap dimension was one such experience, and it didn’t even make the top of the list. If Roxas held a hint to what the place meant, Axel would take it._

_The reassurance did better than the redhead’s initial reaction, and the tension drained from Roxas’s shoulders. The blonde boy still looked around, as if what little people lived at Temperies would bother to spend time outside when the sky was lousy with waiting rain clouds. _

_“I can see these gaps sometimes,” Roxas confessed at a whisper. Axel made sure to keep track of his every word for later use. “I don’t know how else to describe them. But I guess it’s like there’s a tear in the air. They’re all a dark blue, and probably big enough to step through. I think. I’ve never gotten close enough to try.”_

_In Axel’s experience, that could be any number of things. He wasn’t the expert on such matters. “Alright. So what does that have to do with me?”_

_“Well it’s not the exact same but—” Roxas hesitated, then took a deep breath to steel himself. “You have an aura around you, too. It’s black or gray, like wisps of smoke. And, really, it’s kind of distracting.”_

_Axel lifted his own arm, but couldn’t see anything, no matter how hard he squinted. Even with his magic sense, nothing felt unusual. Considering it was his own body, though, would he be able to notice. All things considered, Roxas possessed a special magic ability that Axel hadn’t even heard of._

Well, we hit the jackpot here, then.

_“Can’t say I know how to turn that off,” Axel admitted, his grin leaking into his words. Roxas shook his head, expression still concerned. “But those are some eyes you’ve got there if you can see that stuff.” _Tears in space, huh?

_Axel pulled one hand from his pocket, held his palm open, and willed a single chakram to materialize. _

_Roxas tensed, stepped back, and held out an arm, as if the tree behind him was worth protecting._

_“Easy, I just wanna check something.” Axel concentrated and used his chakram to channel enough magic into a portal. He cut a thin line in space, keeping tabs on Roxas. The blonde’s eyes widened at the sight. “Now. Does that look like what you said is coming off me?”_

_Roxas nodded and stepped forward. He stretched a hand out to touch the portal, but Axel sent it and his chakram away with a dismissive gesture. _

_“No sense in going there. Not much for someone like you, anyways.” Not even Axel had much desire to go back there, though he would need to in time. But for now, investigating Temperies held the priority, and it seemed like the place had plenty to investigate._

_Roxas frowned, but his voice carried awe more than any other emotion. “What was that?”_

_“A portal,” Axel answered, keeping his tone light. He needed to steer the conversation in the right direction. “One to another world, actually. It’s the only one I can open, plus it takes a lot out of me, so don’t go asking me to show them off all willy nilly.”_

_“‘Another world’?” Roxas echoed. “You’re from another world?”_

_“Yes, but I promise it’s not that special. There are lots of world-hoppers out there.” Roxas didn’t seem convinced by the insistence of mediocrity, but Axel pressed on. “Hey, you said the portal looked like me, and _I_ look like your dark blue space holes, right?”_ _Roxas’s eyes lit up as he pulled together the connection. “Temperies is connected to another world all on its own. Isn’t that more interesting?”_

_Roxas grinned a bit, glancing around the empty courtyard. Axel couldn’t see the same way he did, but guessing what the boy searched for wasn’t hard._

_“You don’t gotta hunt down a new one,” Axel scolded. “I’m sure you memorized where some of them were. Let’s just go to one of those and check it out.”_

_“Not how it works,” Roxas said. Now that the big hurdle had been cleared, the boy’s voice carried every trace of familiarity. “They show up and disappear in different places. Sure, some of them appear in the same spots, but that doesn’t mean they’re always around.” Well, that made things a bit more complicated. Not impossible to overcome, though. “You’ll come with me, though? If I see one, you’ll check it out with me? It’ll be safer as a group.”_

_Axel didn’t have to think it over; not with the mission directive. But even if it hadn’t been for the directive, if it hadn’t been for the necessity, with those bright eyes and that infectious smile—_

_“Yeah, I’ll come along. Don’t expect me to pass this up!”_

_—Axel would have given the exact same response._


	9. Act I, Scene IX

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene IX: “Alright, Your Honor, it goes a little something like this…”

* * *

Rhea waited for Axel to continue, but the redhead remained silent, almost staring into space. When he didn’t speak after a few minutes, Rhea coughed, snagging the redhead from his thoughts.

“Sorry,” Axel murmured, not quite up and running yet. Rhea could understand his distracted state, but it didn’t help her much. Even though others couldn’t hear their conversation, the presence of unfamiliar people in her peripheral set nervousness free on her stomach. Axel shook his head, as if to clear his mind. “I’d have thought you’d have tons of questions by now. Not gonna bite?”

Rhea started, pushing her dinner tray aside. Curiosity had overridden any attempts at critical thinking. While they had talked about school, Roxas had never said anything about exploring the castle before Rhea joined him. The period of time, however long it might have been, remained a complete mystery to her.

“I’m not the type to nitpick at every little thing, you know…”

“First off, bullshit,” Axel said, jabbing a finger into the table. “Second off, none of that even makes you curious?” Was it just Rhea, or did he sound offended by the concept?

The girl brushed aside a lock of her hair, keeping it from her eyes. “Well, to start with, I already knew Roxas could see more than I could. It’s how he could find the path to the castle,” Rhea said. “He said I had an aura, too. Dark blue instead of black.” The same color as the portals to the castle and the town with no name. “I matched the path because it’s my home world. And, hey, I followed Roxas into Temperies. Jumping dimensions isn’t exactly a new trick to me.”

Axel frowned, crossing his arms. Rhea mimicked the motion. “Okay, fair enough,” the redhead conceded. “I’m not really used to other people knowing how this stuff works. Force of habit, I guess?”

“Yes, because you’re crawling with company, I’m sure.” Rhea’s dry tone kept the remark from being too insulting, or at least she hoped so. Trading words with Axel required the same verbal dexterity as talking to Zexion, but the former’s buttons could be pressed a lot more. Rhea missed Roxas’s simplicity and humoring her lame jokes. “But, yeah, I get the gist of it. Since you’re not gonna tell me about the world you came from beforehand, I’ll just skip that question and ask you to keep going.”

Yes, she had noticed. Like she had told the Zexion, just because she lacked magic didn’t mean she was stupid.

Axel sighed, his moment gone. Based on his “memorized” shtick, maybe he liked explaining things to people. “Maybe I’ll tell you about where I’m from someday. If you do first.” Ah, there was the catch. Rhea didn’t mind the idea, but she would take the rain check nonetheless. “The first time, we stumbled through the portal on foot. Ended up in the hills with no idea where we were. We could see the town in the distance, and the castle, but prioritized getting a way back to Temperies first. Roxas found us a portal and we slipped back through, same as always.”

“Temperies is orange, right?” Rhea mused. “Weird, considering how gloomy it is.” Endless cloudy skies that dumped down their rain at the worst moments. Rhea had good memories from the past year at the school, but the weather had never been part of that.

“Hey, I don’t pick the colors. I just trust Roxas’s word on them.” Rhea nodded. Axel pushed his own tray to the side, where Rhea’s had been. Sir or Madam or the comfort algorithms must have taken care of it. “But, yeah, we didn’t do much the first time. Didn’t want to get lost in the dark.”

Rhea snickered. “If you ever go there, you’re _always_ lost in the dark.” She had meant it as a joke, but her words came out more serious than planned. In plenty of ways, there was a very sad truth to that statement.

The town with no name, despite its electric and magic illumination, was trapped in the dark, just like everyone who lived there. The torches in the castle didn’t change that, either. The closest thing to light Rhea had ever found there had been Roxas.

“It’s not like we knew that at the time,” Axel defended, and Rhea let him take the point. It didn’t matter anyways. “We needed a way to travel a lot faster than on foot, so we could make it back to Temperies safe. Of course, this was before we realized that the portals back were constant, while the ones there were random.”

“Yet one of the many mysteries between the two,” Rhea remarked. She knew the gist of it. “So I assume this is when you two managed to steal that car.” Axel quirked an eyebrow. “What? There’s no place to buy stuff like that at Temperies, and you wouldn’t have a car in a place where there’s nowhere to go. Roxas spends his free time outside the castle in the school, and _you_ came from another world. Unless you’re about to tell me that came from the Fifty Minute Room, too.” Rhea imagined Dew’s horrified expression at the thought of her fancy car being compared to Roxas’s poorly maintained monster.

They didn’t have cars in the town with no name, but Rhea didn’t need preexisting knowledge to tell that thing was ancient.

Axel chuckled, traces of a grin reforming on his face. Like Roxas, he seemed less distant when he smiled. “Well, you can’t really take too much out of this place without disrupting the payment.” That made sense. They were bargaining time for time, after all. “And you’re right in that Roxas didn’t have the car before. But we didn’t steal it.”

Rhea used her best play interrogation tone. “I request evidence to the contrary.”

“Alright, Your Honor, it goes a little something like this…”

* * *

_Constantly under the cover of clouds, Temperies tended to be chilly at best. But that did nothing to prepare Axel as he stepped through the portal Roxas found wedged between the gym and weight room. Night air stuck to his skin, sending goosebumps up Axel’s arms, even with his latent fire and jacket. Roxas fared worse and hugged his chest, short sleeves providing no protection._

_If Axel had to guess a season, he would say mid-autumn or early spring. Not that he could check off of any plant life._

_Grass stood underfoot, but he couldn’t get a clear color visual in the moonlight. The stuff didn’t crinkle, so maybe it was autumn here? Seasons varied among the worlds, and Axel hadn’t even figured out what time of year it was supposed to be in Temperies._

_His world beforehand didn’t bother with seasons._

_His home world couldn’t experience them anymore._

_Axel refocused on his surroundings before he did something stupid. From the vantage point, they appeared to be on a hill. Not that it was a hard target to hit. In the moonlight, shadows carved gaps in the earth, hills rolling out in every direction. In the distance, the lights glowed over the shadows, a sign of civilization._

_“Whoa,” Roxas said through chattering teeth. “Check that out.”_

_His voice projected far enough away for Axel to tell the blonde was looking at something else. Sure enough, Axel turned, and a massive black tower carved across the sky. On top, the outline of a castle reflected against the moon. _

Okay, got _that_ memorized, no questions about it.

_“Let’s check it out!” Roxas ran straight forward, but Axel’s long arms caught hold of the blonde’s shirt._

_“Hold up,” Axel said, dragging Roxas back to his side. The blonde’s feet dangled as he was lifted, then pressed back to the ground. “Don’t just go running off into unfamiliar territory. You could get lost, and then we’d be in trouble.” Once Axel felt convinced Roxas wouldn’t run off again, the redhead released his capture. “First off, is the portal still there? Are we gonna be able to get back?”_

_Axel gestured to the space he kind of remembered stepping through, having no idea if he was even facing the right direction. Roxas had guided him into the portal the first time. Sobering a bit, the blonde squinted and looked across the hilltop. _

_“Yup, right there,” he confirmed. “It’s orange.” The boy lifted his arm, staring at it with an expression not unlike a cat batting at a puddle of water. “And I am, too. Guess that means it heads back to Temperies.” Since Temperies had been Roxas’s point of origin, Axel relaxed. They weren’t stranded. He could circumvent it if necessary, but avoiding it kept things smooth. Roxas smiled. “See, we’re gonna be fine. What’s the harm in exploring a bit?”_

_“The harm is,” Axel said, the frown not yet faded from his lips, “that we have zero idea of what to expect in this place, plus it’s dark.” In his experience, there were plenty of creatures that could cause trouble in the dark. Even with his attributes, Axel didn’t want to dive into the unknown when visibility was difficult, especially if he had to play bodyguard for a kid. Friendly or not, Roxas was scrawny, and had way too much innocence in his expression to understand combat. “It’s a good point, Roxas, and you know it. Besides, where would we even go?”_

_Roxas pouted at the assessment, but it didn’t get rid of his determination. “Uh, how about there?” He raised a finger, pointing right at the Castle of Intense Creepiness. “I’m willing to bet that there’s something interesting up there.”_

_“Always so eager.” _

_“Come on, doesn’t this look cool? Axel might’ve been to another world before, but it’s not like I have! I wanna explore. Don’t you?”_

_Sighing, Axel raked a hand through his thick hair. A part of him—a part that went way against his better judgement—could empathize. Even though he had seen many worlds since leaving his home, there was always a fresh lick of curiosity that came from discovering somewhere new. Having company that would share that enthusiasm for adventure made that prospect even more appealing. Axel drummed his fingers through the cool night air, ready to summon his chakrams at a moment’s notice. He could take a few surprises if he had to…_

_Then he looked at Roxas again. Roxas, who only had baggy jeans and a fashionable vest to guard him. Roxas, who’d looked so in awe over seeing Axel summon his chakrams that there was no way he had a weapon stowed away in magic for use. Roxas, who, even though Axel didn’t understand all the reasons why, was the main reason for the assignment in Temperies._

There’s too many risks here. Sucks, but them’s the breaks.

_“Okay fine.” Roxas grinned, looking at Axel with unrestrained enthusiasm. “We can explore this place. I have conditions for that, though.” Axel swept his hand through the air, gesturing at Roxas’s state. A somewhat disappointed look crossed the boy’s face. “If we’re gonna go anywhere into unfamiliar territory, you are gonna be equipped for it. There’s no way I’m going around with you otherwise.”_

_“Equipped?” Roxas asked with enough bewilderment to cover two people. “What kind of equipment? What do we even need?”_

_That was enough to confirm that Axel had his work more than cut out for him. “That little Temperies world that you’re from doesn’t have any immediate danger. No monsters, no conflict, and a handful of people.” It was a peaceful place, if not a bit dull. “Not all worlds are so lucky. Now, I don’t know a thing about this place, but I can tell you that _that_ thing you wanna explore, seems like it’s trouble.” When he attempted a magic probe of the castle, it came back with a strange tingling, though it was hard to get an accurate read from so far away. Still, he knew to trust his instincts. “I’m not going anywhere near that thing until you’ve got a weapon, or at least some protective gear.”_

_“Weapon?” All at once, Roxas’s expression lit up in amazement, almost enough to cut through the all-enclosing darkness. “I get a weapon? What kind of weapon? Does that mean I’m gonna be able to fight?”_

_“Easy there.” Axel held up his hands in a stop motion. While it halted the torrent of words spilling out of Roxas’s mouth, his sunny expression didn’t dim in the slightest. It was almost blinding, but Axel couldn’t deny that the bubble of warmth that worked its way up from his chest and into a smile. “Look, I’d like nothing more than if you didn’t _have_ to fight. But while there’s a chance you might, we’re gonna make sure you don’t get hurt because we weren’t prepared. Got it?”_

_Roxas nodded so hard that his already upright hair flew in all directions. Axel couldn’t help but wonder if the kid got the severity of the situation or not. “Got it! I super got it! So when we get prepared, we’ll come back, right?”_

Well, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with having that much enthusiasm…_ Axel let his smile grow a bit. It’d been some time since he’d felt so at peace with another person. _Assuming we can get him up to shape, it’ll be good to have backup, anyways.

_He reached out a hand to tousle Roxas’s already haphazard hair, then nudged the boy in the vague direction of the portal home. “Yup, we’ll come back once we’re ready. And we’ll explore that castle up there as much as you want.”_

_Roxas grinned, the flash of his teeth reflecting the moonlight._

* * *

_Roxas’s dormitory was sparse in his belongings: the bed, desk, and dresser that were generic enough to have been the school’s took up most of the space, and there were hardly any personal artifacts beyond school supplies. He didn’t even have any stray laundry lying about. It was the biggest blank slate of a room Axel had seen in years. Even the most emotionless of Axel’s comrades had more decorations that Roxas._

_Not that said owner of the dorm seemed bothered by it. He pushed open the door far enough that the automatic spring shut wouldn’t shut Axel out, kicked off his shows by the entrance, and sat on the bed, gesturing for Axel to follow. “Come on. Sit wherever. You can’t really give me a weapon with the door hanging open.”_

_Axel didn’t let it show, but discomfort at the sterility of the place made him hesitate to step inside. But Roxas’s words were true enough, so he powered forward, following the precedent of shrugging off his boots before heading to the desk. Nothing but schoolwork littered the surface, and Axel sat down backwards in the chair. The door swung shut all on its own, the sound of it shutting echoing against the undecorated walls._

_“Okay,” Axel said, leaning over the back of the chair and ready to move the conversation on so he had something to distract him from the sheer _plainness_ of the room. “You’re not just gonna get a weapon until we have an idea of your skills. Have you ever fought before?”_

_“Nope.” Roxas had the awareness to look abashed. Axel had expected as much, but he’d kind of hoped otherwise. Having never taught a newbie, it would be difficult to do so if the castle was a challenge. Roxas’s face rebounded back to an optimistic grin, and he almost threw himself across the bed to face Axel head on. “But I can learn! I promise.”_

_If it didn’t seem so demeaning, Axel would’ve compared Roxas to a puppy, starved for attention. Given how abandoned the rest of Temperies seemed, maybe he was. “Look, I’m not doubting your learning capabilities or anything. I just needed to know.” In some ways, not having to procure a specific weapon made it easier, since there wasn’t a need to get it exactly right, but the near infinite possibilities of having a blank slate was a challenge all in its own. “Then do you have any preferences, then? I have my chakrams, but they’re tricky for beginners. I memorized the basics in other weapons, though, so I should be able to give you self-defense basics.” He tapped his fingers to his temple._

_Roxas whispered something that sounded an awful lot like “so cool” before coming back to himself. “Oh, can I learn how to use a sword then?” He hopped off the bed, then started rummaging in the corner of a room. When he came up for air, stick of wood in the rough approximation of a bokuto was in hand. Roxas made a few clumsy swipes at the air, the stupidest grin on his face. “I think swords are cool! Don’t they just look like a hero’s weapon?”_

_Axel couldn’t stop the roll of laughter that slopped out of his mouth. Roxas paused in his (shoddy) swordsmanship, blinking. Axel straightened himself up. “Sorry,” he said, though there were still traces of a chuckle still in his voice. “I understand enough about swordsmanship that it could work, but…” He smirked just enough so his next words wouldn’t be outright condescending. “You’re gonna have a tough time being a hero with form like that. Got it memorized?”_

_Roxas looked to the bokuto in his hands, dismayed for a moment. Axel wondered just how fragile the kid’s heart was and if he’d gone too far. He’d been in his work environment so long that bluntness had become his default, but not everyone responded well to such an attitude. _Normal_ people didn’t respond well. Axel opened his mouth to say something—whether it was to apologize or outright take his words back, he wasn’t sure—but Roxas squared his shoulders, determination burning in his perfect blue eyes._

_“I’ll do it.”_

_The sheer conviction in his voice struck Axel speechless for a moment. “Do it?”_

_“Yeah, I’ll do it.” Roxas tightened his grip on the bokuto and nailed down Axel with eye contact. “I’ll learn what I gotta do. I’ll learn how to use a sword properly, and I’ll know how to defend myself. I’ll memorize all of it!” Roxas stepped forward, almost pleading as he leaned down in Axel’s face. “I wanna go back to that blue world and see what it’s like. So please teach me!”_

_They were so close that Axel didn’t even have room to breathe. He’d almost forgotten how. Amongst all the jaded cynicism, it was easy to forget that life and purity existed, that there were people with souls that burned bright, despite everything else around them._

_Without doubt, Roxas was one of those people._

_And Axel wanted to be a part of that._

_“It’s not gonna be easy.” Axel stood, his height overcoming Roxas’s with ease. The smaller boy stared up at him. “You don’t know crap about this, so it’ll be even more of a challenge. It’ll probably take a couple weeks until you’re ready to go to the castle.” And while it was gonna be a pain in the ass to teach him, Axel wasn’t going to give up without at least trying. “But what the hell. If you can keep up with me then I won’t complain. I’m gonna put you though the ringer; that’s what it takes to become a hero._

_“And you do that,” Axel continued, putting a hand to his chest in a pledge he hadn’t planned to make, “and you and I can explore that castle as much as you want.”_


	10. Act I, Scene X

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene X: “Just asking to make sure: you _can_ drive, right?”

* * *

_Axel had thought so when he did his initial scout of Temperies, but it really was a ghost town. Besides the few students and staff at the school itself, there didn’t seem to be a single other person amongst the scattered townscape, as if there was no point to the empty homes and shops. It wasn’t the most desolate world that Axel had seen, but it still unsettled him in a way he hadn’t felt in a while. _

It gives me the creeps…

_Still, that abandoned state had its advantages. The most important one being that Roxas could train with actual weaponry without attracting any unwanted attention. After exiting campus, they’d just needed to find the biggest open area they could, no hassle in setting up wards or the like. The precious few residents that Temperies _did_ have to offer didn’t seem to find going out of their comfort zones as necessary._

_The park looked just as one would expect: a lot of open grass, still fresh green and broken up by the occasional pathways, scattered trees, and the occasional bench. No real playground, but that didn’t seem like much of an issue when Roxas was the youngest resident Axel had seen. Roxas was in his mid-teens, despite that baby face of his, and holding a sword could only do so much to make him look intimidating._

_“Are you just gonna space out the whole time?” Roxas asked. He was still using the bokuto until he got a good enough handle to not be in danger of slicing himself open on a naked blade. He stood in a ready stance, frowning at Axel from across their sparring grounds. “How am I supposed to practice if my teacher’s not even paying attention?”_

_Axel flicked his gaze away from the ever-cloudy sky. “Wrong question,” he said, tapping his own practice sword against the ground. He was rusty in the techniques, but with Roxas’s baseline of zero from a week ago, rusty did just fine. “In fact, you shouldn’t say anything at all. If your opponent’s foolish enough to not pay attention, then you take advantage of it.”_

_Roxas grimaced. “That doesn’t seem very fair.”_

_Biting back a sigh, Axel considered whether to say his thoughts. Then again, it would be better to get the message across before Roxas learned the hard way. “Look, some people just don’t fight fair. If you’re too concerned with giving them a fighting chance, there are opponents that will take advantage of you in a heartbeat. Got it memorized?” Axel had been on both the receiving and giving end of that equation. _

_Roxas’s expression twisted a bit in conflict, between understanding the logic, but still not liking it. _Well, he can like it or not, but if he doesn’t want to go through with it, that’s his loss. _“Look,” Axel continued, “I don’t think we’re gonna run into anything that’ll make us have to fight like that, but I just want you to understand there’s a chance. Now—” Axel lifted his sword, and Roxas snapped to a defensive stance. “Good, you’re getting the hang of it. I’m not gonna give you an opening like that again, so you’re gonna have to face me. Come at me, Roxas.”_

_There were several beats of silence as they faced off. There weren’t even any background sounds of chirping birds or the like, just a hollow emptiness. Roxas’s eyes flicked over Axel’s form, searching for an opening. He was pretty much telegraphing the hell out of where he was going to strike, but there would be time to correct that later. After Roxas realized that there were several possible points he could attack, Axel could see the gears turning in the boy’s head over which one to go for._

_So he shifted his stance, making an obvious target, and Roxas lunged forward the second he noticed._

_Their swords cracked into each other, though there wasn’t as much force in the blow as one would expect. Roxas didn’t hesitate, making the next move before Axel could start a counter. The rhythm of their exchange began, with Roxas attacking first, while Axel blocked and parried his strikes. Roxas’s form was still sloppy, but he had an undeniable lightness on his feet that kept him moving. Axel was going easy, but he had to admit there were some strikes he had to put proper effort into keeping from hitting their targets._

_The cacophony of their sparring sent hundreds of rapid cracks up towards the sky for several minutes. Every so often, Axel would increase his reaction speed, making Roxas do the same in turn. In the past week, Roxas had been able to improve how long he could stay in combat for before Axel would disarm him. Getting close to the shift, Axel dodged out of the way of one of Roxas’s blows, then started returning attacks himself._

_There was a distinguishable shift in the battle dynamic. Where Roxas had been taking on the offensive position before, he was forced to swap to a full defensive mode to keep away from Axel’s blows. His blocking speed had improved, too (though it had taken several days of bruises), but he hadn’t gotten the hang of making attacks at the same time. And while being able to smack things into oblivion through speed and keeping away damaging hits were valuable skills, it wasn’t quite enough for being brought into a potential combat situation._

_“Come on, Roxas,” Axel said, flashing a taunting grin. “You usually drop out about this time. Just go ahead and give it up already.”_

_“No…way.” While not winded, Roxas had trouble stringing together words while making a presentable show with his swordsmanship. Axel struck out with a heavier blow than the others, and Roxas winced as the force shook through to his arms. “This is the part where I show how much better I can get!”_

_“Well, if you think you can, be my guest!”_

_Cycling through a the few attack patterns he could pull off with a sword, Axel realized that, indeed, Roxas was managing to hold on longer than usual. Stringing together the next strategy, Axel stepped back a bit, adjusting his stance in the usual signal that the training was about to intensify. He shifted his weight, preparing a heavier blow with a wider swing, and let it fly._

_The unfamiliar impact of hard wood smacked into his knuckles._

_If Axel had been using his chakrams, keeping a grip on the weapon would have been second nature, and he could have parried with the second weapon while recovering from his fumble. As it was, the slick surface of the bokuto fell away even from the purchase of his gloves, rolling across the grass. Axel cursed and tried to shake the sharp sting out of his hand. Roxas stared, frozen in mid sword swing, eyes wide with awe. “I did it,” he said, with more breath than words. Then the moment caught up to him, and he threw his arms up in triumph. “I did it!”_

_Roxas ran around, shouting in celebration, and Axel watched on with a wry smile. “Yeah, well, in a real fight you wouldn’t stop just because you disarmed your opponent.” Plenty of people had hidden weapons up their sleeves, not to mention the unpredictability of magic users. Roxas stopped several feet away and raised an eyebrow, almost challenging Axel to only give him criticism. “Sheesh, don’t give me that. I was gonna say you’ve done good work, kid. Be a little patient, would you?”_

_That was enough to set loose Roxas’s grin again. “I totally did it!”_

_“Good work.”_

_“So what’s next?”_

_Those blue eyes were so lit up with anticipation, it was hard to try and say anything cautionary. There were hundreds, almost thousands, of warnings flashing around in Axel’s head, but he set them aside. Even with as much distance between him and the castle there had been, he still would’ve sensed it if something horrendous resided there. Since they weren’t facing doomsday upon entering, there wouldn’t be much harm in moving things forward._

_“Next,” Axel said, dipping into his magic storage and pulling out the sword they’d selected for Roxas, “we’re gonna go ahead and properly explore that other world.”_

* * *

_“So I’ve been thinking,” Roxas said when they later reconvened outside the school to get ready to head back through one the dark blue portals. He wasn’t sporting any major armor so it didn’t interfere with his speed, but he was equipped with proper sword and peppered with what protective enchantments Axel could muster. Being the one that could see where in the world they were going, Roxas took point as they meandered through the streets. _

_“What about?” Axel asked, eyes flicking over their surroundings. Though he’d had plenty of time to confirm that Temperies was, in fact, empty, that couldn’t erase years of checking his surroundings. All the refined instinct earned his was the same old abandoned streets and somehow still prime-condition buildings, not a tarnish among them. “You’re not getting second thoughts about going through with this, are you?”_

_“No of course not!” Roxas looked affronted by the idea, but he kept walking away from the dorms, taking a different path from the regular escapades to the park. “It’s just, remember how I mentioned that the portals there always end up in different places?”_

_Axel nodded, tapping his temple. “Memorized.”_

_Roxas looked like he couldn’t decide between rolling his eyes or laughing. “Yeah, well, I figured it out ‘cause I looked around for them after I started seeing the things all over the place. And some of them are pretty far out there. Farther than the park, even.”_

_Axel quirked a brow; the park was well within walking distance, but it wasn’t a short ways away, either. Based on his estimations, the distance between there and the school was about a third of Temperies’s total width. “You went and walked all that way just looking for portals?” Roxas flushed a little but still nodded. “I guess you don’t have much of a struct curfew here, but that seems a bit much.”_

_“It’s not like there’s anything else to do here.”_

_“I concede your point. What were you thinking about it, then?”_

_Roxas’s pace slowed down a bit as they rounded the edge of the building. The few other Temperies students didn’t bother wandering out of the school, given that there wasn’t, as Roxas had said, anything to do, giving a clear path to the mostly empty parking lot. “Well, it’s hard to find a portal when it could be anywhere in town, and you can’t really just cover the whole place on foot in an afternoon…”_

_Axel could confirm that, given that it’d taken even him the better part of a day to scout the place out on his own. Even though Roxas was fast, it wouldn’t do them any good to burn out his energy. Still, Axel had an uneasy coil of instinct ready to spring open in his chest. “Why don’t I like the way you’re avoiding answering my question?”_

_“Heheh, sorry.” The sheepish grin was enough for Roxas to earn near immediate forgiveness, but Axel maintained his stance of skepticism. “Well, I just thought it’d be better if we had a faster way to get around, so—tada.” _

_Their advance came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot, and Axel had the belated realization that Roxas was gesturing at the old beater of a car in front of them. There weren’t too many cars in Temperies, but the one before them was in poor condition compared to the rest of them. With a blocky build and a layer of grime that didn’t come all the way off when Axel ran a finger through it, the rest of Temperies seemed lively in comparison._

_“Okay, setting aside whether or not this thing will even start,” Axel said, clapping the dirt off his gloves, “how do you even expect to get into it? Breaking and entering isn’t cool, man.” Putting aside the fact that Axel had done far worse, letting Roxas wander into territory didn’t sit well with him. Not even having to force his grimace into place, Axel flicked a finger at the worn-down monster. “I appreciate the sentiment, but walking’s gonna be the way.”_

_“I actually looked into this, you know. We don’t even have to break in!” Ignoring Axel’s opening mouth, Roxas whipped a car key from his pocket. A fresh remark about how stealing the key still counted as unlawful entry sidled up on Axel’s tongue. “Look, there’s all sorts of weird rumors at school. Half of them are fake since everyone just wants something interesting to happen, but some of them are legit. Like that there’s an unattended car on campus that no one owns anymore, and it doesn’t matter who uses it.”_

_With just how beat up the car was, that wasn’t much of a surprise to hear. “And you got hold of a key because…?”_

_“Because I asked around after training and got lucky.”_

_Axel had to hand it to the kid: determination was one of his strongest attributes, besides the uncanny amount of warmth he put off. “Well, if you’re sure it won’t get us arrested or anything.” A snicker slipped away from Roxas, and Axel knocked his knuckles against the hood, stepping around the side of the car. “Too bad I don’t do water magic. Ah, well, we should be able to make do. Let’s get moving.”_

_Roxas’s eyes tracked Axel as he tromped to the passenger’s door, then they flew wide open in shock. “Wait, wait, you’re actually gonna let me drive?”_

_“Well, this _was_ your idea. I assume you know how to drive if you suggested it.” Axel pulled the handle but was met with the resistance of the lock. He looked over the car at Roxas’s frozen in surprise form. “Come on, man, you gonna let me in?”_

_“Ah, right!” Roxas broke out of his stupor. After fumbling with the key in the door for a good minute (the old monster didn’t even have a key fob), he managed to open the driver’s side, then unlock the rest of the car. A draft of stale air hit Axel in the face, and the layer of grime on the windows cast a dim shadow over the seat. He tossed their gear in the back and started cranking down the window while Roxas familiarized himself with the car’s functions. It took several turns of key in ignition for the engine to turn over, but it sounded steady enough when it started up. There was enough windshield wiper fluid to make seeing the actual road possible._

_Axel watched amused as Roxas tried to pep talk himself into shifting the car into reverse. If nothing else, the car was at least automatic, so it wasn’t a total nightmare to operate._

_“Just asking to make sure: you _can_ drive, right?” A much needed breeze rolled through the open windows, and Axel propped his elbow on the frame. “Look, I was just teasing when I was saying you had to drive. If you really don’t know, we can switch seats.”_

_“No, no, I know. We have driver’s ed here, so I can do that much.” It was an odd choice in curriculum, but it wasn’t like anything else in Temperies made sense. Roxas drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, looking pensive. “I’m just excited. And nervous. I don’t know what to expect.” He broke his gaze away from the windshield, looking to Axel. “What do you think that other world is like?”_

_First making sure he wasn’t about to knock into the gear in the backseat, Axel slid his seat back to stretch out his legs. It wasn’t quite enough room for him, but it was less cramped by a longshot. “Well, you saw the same amount I did, so I don’t know what else to tell you.” It had looked just as empty as Temperies, but there hadn’t been much landscape to confirm it. Maybe from the castle he could get a better lay of the land hidden behind the hills. “But that castle up there isn’t normal, I can tell that much. Of course, whatever we find, you’re gonna be prepared.” He reached over and poked Roxas’s forehead. “Got it memorized?”_

_Roxas batted his bangs back into place, but shared Axel’s smile. “Right. I worked hard. We’ve got this.” With a nod, he at last put his hand on the gear shift, and the car eased back out of his parking spot, jerking every couple of feet. Seeing Roxas’s concentrated expression, Axel decided to hold back his chuckle. After a few moments of puttering around the parking lot, the car at last entered the road, taking too much caution for the absolute lack of traffic. Axel assumed that Roxas was more intent on combing the area for a portal._

_Knowing he couldn’t contribute much to that endeavor, Axel propped himself on the window. Though Roxas wasn’t driving over the speed limit or anything (if there was one), the breeze still blew in the open windows, tossing their hair about and trying its best to push the musty smell out of the car. Their gear rattled in the back whenever Roxas made a turn too jerkily, but it was otherwise peaceful._

_Just the lines of empty buildings, the roll of the tires on the road, and the breath of the breeze. For the first time since he’d come to Temperies, Axel felt himself relax, even dulling his always on alert senses. It’d been too long, and the tension drained out of his shoulders. The world was calm, and Axel almost claimed a nap right there in the car seat._

_Then Roxas swerved the car with all the vengeance of an angered wildebeest, setting the tires squealing against the road and Axel slamming against the door so hard he might’ve flown out the window if it weren’t for his seatbelt almost choking him._

_Spluttering through a few coughs, Axel shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”_

_“There’s a portal,” Roxas said, eyes anchored forward. “Hold on, I dunno how well it’s gonna take the car.”_

_“_Take _the car?” Axel fumbled for the support bar hanging from the ceiling, and the cheap plastic creaking in his grip did nothing for his sense of stability. “What’s wrong with just parking the damn thing and walking through?”_

_“If we do that, we won’t be able to use the car to cover ground!” Axel considered grabbing at the wheel, but Roxas had that same set expression he’d worn during training; getting him to stop would be impossible. “Look, the portals seem way smaller, but they can fit a person through if they pass through right, so it should be able to take the car.” Axel turned to see where they were even heading and found an abandoned coffee shop looming before them. Roxas showed no signs of slowing down or turning the wheel. “Alright, here we go!”_

_“Here we go, my ass!”_

_But Roxas had already slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, and the car roared forward._


	11. Act I, Scene XI

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene XI: “You weren’t making a racket, so I assumed something was wrong.”

* * *

Seated in a library beanbag, Rhea took a deep breath through her nose as she contemplated everything that Axel had told her. Part of her was beyond excited, to learn more about Roxas. That innocent determination and good intent was just like him. Another part of her, one that never would go away, was jealous about how much he and Axel had shared. If it weren’t for the logic inside of her providing reminders that it would be stupid to concoct such an elaborate lie, she would’ve been tempted to call the whole thing a fabrication.

Roxas fumbling to learn how to fight, making reckless moves with the car—they seemed so foreign from the competent fighter that had saved Rhea from dying in the castle, from the boy that doted on his beaten-up vehicle that was older than the two of them combined. The Roxas that Axel spoke about seemed more like Rhea with all her flaws when she first started castle diving herself. The idea of a wet behind the ears Roxas was cute.

Rhea’s smile faltered as she realized just how much she missed Roxas. She’d told herself she wouldn’t get attached so something like this couldn’t happen again, but the familiar pain of loneliness left a searing gash in her chest. Rolling onto her stomach, Rhea smothered her face in the beanbag, even as the corner of the book she’d been pretending to read stabbed into her side. Since her body had been tempered by blows of the Heartless and Nobodies, it would take more than a book to be her undoing.

Still, part of her felt awful. Before the dull throb of a headache could start to form, the Fifty Minute Room’s comfort algorithms sent the sweet scent of peppermint and rosemary through the air. Somewhat comforted, Rhea pulled her thoughts away from dangerous territory, but a dark pit remained in her stomach.

_I wonder…if he hates me._

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but Rhea couldn’t help but consider it. Unlike before, the cause of Roxas’s abandonment was that they’d had an argument. Rhea didn’t know how to put that together, and Roxas’s general lack of anger made it even harder to put it together, and that was without already considering the memory-altering spell he was under. Trying to keep the tears from spilling out of her eyes, Rhea pressed herself tighter against the beanbag until her lungs protested for proper air. She emerged, finding the shadow of a person over her. Considering her state of mind, Rhea expected it to be Sir or Madam, one of their comforting pep talks at hand.

Instead, it was Zexion.

He’d changed clothes since she’d last saw him, though the fundamental look of button-up and his massive book tucked under arm hadn’t changed. He observed Rhea with an expression that made her feel like their science classroom’s butterfly observation back in Temperies, as if she was a specimen to be watched or some stupid complicated math problem to be solved. Though not with the same level if scrutiny, Rhea stared at him right back.

“Are you gonna tell me that smothering myself in a beanbag isn’t conductive to your research?” she asked.

“On the contrary. You weren’t making a racket, so I assumed something was wrong.” Zexion didn’t kneel to her level, and she couldn’t quite call the face he was making concerned, but his stern expression did soften a bit. “I normally don’t make such offers, but since I’ve reached a par in my research, do you want to talk about it?”

Rhea almost snorted at the idea—since when did Zexion care about her feelings?—but she realized, a bit belatedly, that it would help. Even so, she did raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure you wanna put up with this? It’s kind of a sob story.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t serious.”

Well then, it was his funeral. “Might as well make yourself comfortable, then.” _Because who knows how long I can keep it together when thinking about this._

Zexion looked around for a convenient seat before he realized only bean bags were close by enough to use without creating a commotion. With a barely concealed sigh, he lowered himself into one, setting his book to the side yet keeping a hand on it, as if afraid it would run off on its own (which wasn’t completely out of the question, seeing as it was a magic book). “I’ll leave the floor to you, then.”

Rhea nodded, though words seemed horribly stuck in her throat. “I’m just… Have you ever gone through thinking that you knew someone, then they turned out to be someone completely different? Like, they had all sorts of things going on without out—and yeah, that’s normal, that’s fine!—but they never told you anything, and when you found out you didn’t know what to think because all you can feel is like a stupid jealous wreck?” It was a good thing no one else ever seemed to take advantage of the library besides Zexion, because Rhea could feel her voice going beyond usually acceptable levels. Even her conversation partner seemed to think she was going overboard, but he kept the comment contained to the quick grimace that came to his face.

“I can’t say that I have.” _Well, must be nice to not have to worry about anything like that!_ “But I believe I can hypothesize what it might be like.” Realizing that Zexion was trying, Rhea held back the harsh retort she was about to say. Zexion shifted a bit in his beanbag, his free hand gesturing through the air like a haphazard conductor. “Is this about someone back in your world?”

Rhea started a bit; Axel was the only person she’d ever talked about life outside the Fifty Minute Room, and that made sense since they were both from Temperies. “Yeah, it is.” She hugged her knees close to her chest, feeling the unwanted tears ready to prick at her eyes once again. “He was someone that I thought was my best friend and then we…” She had been about to say _We got into a fight_, but that wasn’t fully accurate, that didn’t cover watching Roxas’s face twist in frustration as he pushed her away and abandoned her on the side of the road. “He got upset with me. Tossed me out, like it didn’t matter. That’s why I came here. Because it hurt so much.” She pressed her eyes into her knees, as if Zexion wouldn’t be able to tell she was crying if she let the tears soak through the denim. “This is what _always_ happens,” she whispered. “I think I matter to someone, and then I don’t, and then I lose it. That’s why I said I wouldn’t bother making connections anymore, but…”

But Roxas had saved her from her stupid suicidal attempt of running into the castle, with no way to defend herself. He’d offered to be her friend. She’d been stupid to believe that she would be okay, that she wouldn’t get hurt again. Why had he been so warm if this was what he was going to do to her?

Zexion waited through her whimpers, probably thinking she was pathetic. Someone like him, who focused on his research and presumably had something to aim for, wouldn’t have ever gotten hurt in the way she had. “Then this isn’t the first time you’ve gone through something like this,” he said, stating it like a fact—but, no, there was a faint touch of empathy in his voice, even if it was an accident. “You’ve been hurt before, so it feels even worse this time.”

Head still in her knees, Rhea nodded, contemplating how much she wanted to say. She’d never even talked with Roxas about what had happened to her before, in the town with no name. Then again, he’d never told her about his adventures with Axel, either.

_So this makes us even, doesn’t it?_

“The world I’m staying in now…is my second one.” The fact that she was a world jumper didn’t seem to surprise Zexion in the slightest; then again, she supposed everyone in the Fifty Minute Room had at least _some_ exposure to the idea, given the nature of the place. “In my first world, I had some friends, but it turned out they were just treating me like a game.” Like a toy to be picked up, enjoyed for a bit, then tossed aside, laughing all the way. “I was just a joke to them. They didn’t mean any of what they’d said.”

It had been a fake friendship.

A foolishly simple scenario.

And she’d fallen right for it.

“I didn’t figure it out until they went ahead and spilled all my closest secrets to everyone in their stupid little gossip network.” In a small community like the town with no name, that essentially meant everyone in their age group had found out, and she’d essentially become a huge joke. “And so, while it sounds pretty lame, I went ahead and ran away.”

Zexion let out a hum that Rhea suspected was just a sign that he was still listening and not thinking about his research or whatever. “To your second world?”

“Yeah.” In a roundabout way, at least. While it was cathartic to let out the parts she hadn’t talked about before, Rhea wasn’t quite so willing to burden Zexion with her stupid plan to disappear into the Castle and never come out. “I had some help, but now I live in this place called Temperies. There’s hardly anything to do there, but it’s better than staying somewhere where I constantly feel like an outcast.”

“I can understand that sentiment at the very least.” Rhea stared at him with wide eyes, and Zexion let out a sigh that didn’t sound half as annoyed as he wanted it to be. “I don’t know what sort of idea you have about me, but I’m not some robot that doesn’t have any emotions.”

Rhea looked away, feeling a rush of shame that she wasn’t entirely sure she knew what it was for. “I wasn’t thinking that at all,” she muttered.

In her peripheral vision, Zexion’s expression softened a bit. She did him the courtesy of pretending like she didn’t notice, instead running her fingers along the seams of the beanbag, enjoying the faint bumps against her skin. “I don’t suppose after revealing that much about yourself that you expect me to do the same?”

“Only if you want to.” Feeling like she was fidgeting too much, Rhea sat on her hands. The flaking feeling of dried tears stayed stuck to her cheeks. “I wasn’t intending on making you owe me or anything. Since you listened to me whine, actually, I should owe you instead.” Now that he’d mentioned it, though, she _was_ the faintest bit curious. Between the town with no name and the strange, almost detached population of Temperies, Rhea had almost forgotten that other people had lives and stories attached to them; hearing so many of them since entering the Fifty Minute Room reminded her that it was possible to connect to others that way.

And that by exposing yourself, you were making yourself vulnerable.

You could get hurt.

_You’re a coward, Rhea,_ she scolded herself.

_Damn right._

“Well, should I ever be experiencing an emotional crisis like no other, I’ll be sure to come to you.” The sarcasm in his voice was so well controlled that Rhea almost didn’t catch it. Looking satisfied by her reaction, Zexion brushed some hair away from his eyes. “I won’t say that I don’t have problems, but I’m well-adjusted enough that they’re not worth talking about.” Rhea got the feeling he was sparing her from juggling an extra burden, but the fact that he wasn’t about to return her openness was the slightest bit grating. _You’ve known each other for hardly any time at all. What did you expect? You’re the weird one for spilling your guts to a practical stranger._ “Unless you want to hear about my research complications.”

Rhea put on a mock innocent expression. “Depends. Do you think I can actually understand any of it?”

“Yes, yes, very humorous.” Zexion pulled his book to his lap, though he didn’t thumb through the pages. Considering that he hadn’t already bolted, maybe he was actually enjoying their conversation, as outlandish that that sounded. “Just because you wouldn’t be able to comprehend the magic itself, I see no reason to believe that you’re not intelligent enough to understand the theory.”

“That sounded suspiciously like a compliment.”

Zexion hummed in a faintly amused way. Rhea found it surprisingly comforting. “Take it as you will.” She rolled her eyes, but a smile was starting to form on her lips, even with all the awful feelings she’d been combating only a few minutes before. “But, that being said, I’m also a world jumper. Part of that and the connections between worlds is part of my research—along with enhancing magic theory and abilities.”

Rhea propped her head up, faintly interested; based on what Axel had told her, he was a world jumper, too, but he’d never gone ahead and outright said it. “What’s your world like, anyways?” Was that some sort of violation of the social norms in the Fifty Minute Room? Zexion’s expression somewhat suggested it. _Whatever. He doesn’t have to answer that if he doesn’t want to._

“A place dedicated to research. For someone like you, there’s not much noteworthy there. The lab is probably the only notable landmark.” It annoyingly sounded a lot like Temperies and Rhea’s own world without a name. Were there any places out in the universe that were actually complete, rather than a huge empty space dedicated to only one thing. “Then again, I don’t have much reason to wander _outside_ of the lab, either, so perhaps my view is a bit biased.”

“Unless you’re coming here to do more research,” Rhea said with a flip of her hair. _Isn’t taking advantage of a space outside of time kind of cheating? Of course, I’m cheating on having a proper emotional catharsis, so maybe I’m not one to talk._ “Zexion, don’t be shocked, but I think you have a problem.”

His calm expression didn’t so much as waver. “I believe that puts us both in the same boat, now doesn’t it.”

Rhea chuckled, feeling even lighter than before. “I bet you were like that in your home world, too, always cooped up inside.” It wasn’t that hard to imagine a younger Zexion with smaller proportions (but the same serious expression on his face) sitting around inside, staring intently at a book at least twice the size of his head.

“Not quite,” Zexion said, his voice somewhat quieter. Rhea wiped the goofy look off her face and stayed silent, not probing for more, but secretly hoping he would keep talking. “My home world…was a much bigger place. It was beautiful, too. There was plenty to explore there, though I will admit I wasn’t as rambunctious as some of the others there.”

“It sounds really nice.” Her home world was always dark and felt like there was nowhere else to go, save for the Castle—and that had been a recent addition. Would she have been able to have proper friends, in a place where there was plenty to do and see, things that would entertain children beyond playing cruel games with each other. “Do you ever go back to visit, at least? No offense, but you look like you could use some sun.”

Zexion’s expression hardened, and Rhea wondered if she’d gone too far with her teasing. “It’s not someplace I can go back to anymore,” he said, and Rhea felt a terrible pang of sympathy. “You may not know much about what goes on beyond your Temperies, but there are some worlds that haven’t survived. Radiant Guardian was one of those.”

Rhea’s mouth flapped uselessly while she tried to come up with the right thing to say. As eloquent as ever, the first syllable to form in her panic was “Shit.” Zexion glanced to her, and Rhea flushed in embarrassment. “Shit, no, sorry, I was making stupid jokes and asking questions and you—” She sucked in a deep breath. She may not _want_ to go back to the town with no name, but she could return, even if it had only been to explore the Castle that loomed over it in the distance. “I’m sorry,” she repeated, unsure of what else would be appropriate.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Zexion thumbed the pages of his book, but he didn’t open it to read. “You’re not responsible for what happened to my home, nor did you force me to say anything I didn’t choose to.”

“Well, yeah, but—” The almost deadpan look on Zexion’s face was enough for Rhea to stop herself short, and she ducked her chin into the hood of her jacket. “Thank you for sharing with me, then,” she settled on. It felt better than not saying anything else, and it was a far more polite alternative to the hundreds of questions floating around in her head. _What happened to his home world? Is that why he’s studying magic, to do something to save it? How can I be sulking over some dumb fight if there are people out there who’ve lost their entire worlds?_

_Am I really that pathetic?_

The whole purpose of this conversation was to improve your mood; not make you upset.” Rhea raised an eyebrow. “You have that downcast expression on your face again. You make it rather obvious.”

Rhea rubbed her cheeks, as if that would make it go away. But sadness was something that seemed to be a part of her for now, something that wouldn’t disappear until it had run its full course through her system, like a bad case of the flu. “Don’t take this personally, Zexion,” she said, making sure her tone was joking despite the negative feelings constricting her chest, “but you aren’t exactly the most comforting person I’ve ever met.” She tried not to think of the person she _would_ give that honor instead.

Despite her snark, Zexion still donned a faintly amused smile. “You wouldn’t be the first person who’s told me that,” he said, “but sometimes we just need to deal with what we have to work with.”

_Yeah,_ Rhea thought, too embarrassed to say the words out loud, _and, all things considered, this isn’t so bad._


	12. Act I, Scene XII

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene XII: “I’ve never gotten the chance to see something like _this_ before.”

* * *

Axel was about halfway through his sentence when he recognized the spaced out look on Rhea’s face; her hazel eyes may have been open, but they certainly weren’t registering what was in front of them. Axel waved a hand right in her line of vision, hoping the motion would stir some recognition in her. “Hello, you awake over there?”

Unlike their previous conversations in the cafeteria, they’d chosen the Fifty Minute Rooms lounge area for the next Storytime About Roxas conference. To Axel, the place looked like a casual coffee shop he’d once seen in another world, with the orange light of a sunset streaming in through the projections of windows. There was even the sound of faint chatter in the air, as if more people occupied the space than were actually present. He had no idea what Rhea saw when she looked over the room, but that wasn’t all that important considering she seemed to be hard set in the middle of daydreaming.

Rhea blinked slowly, as if remembering that seeing was something she could do. “Sorry, I’ve been thinking a lot.” She rubbed her eyes as if she’d just woken up. _Is she getting better? Or worse?_ Axel couldn’t tell, and he didn’t know the right way to find an answer. Leaning forward to prop her elbows on the table, Rhea focused her eyes on him. “What were you saying?”

“I was _saying_ all sorts of awful things about you to see if you noticed.” Rhea scowled and attempted to smack Axel’s arm from across the table, but he simply scooted back his chair to avoid the blow with a grin. “I’m kidding, you know. But you might wanna pay attention or else I might do it.”

Rhea huffed and settled down into cradling her coffee mug, which had dangerously started to shake from her sudden movements. “You’re going to be talking about Roxas, right? Of course I’ll listen.” She’d probably meant for the words to come out self-assured, but they just sounded brittle.

Axel decided that throwing off another sarcastic remark really wasn’t worth her potentially crying and simply nodded. “Just making sure you’re on board before I go and talk without an audience.” Really, it didn’t matter too much anymore, but Rhea wasn’t likely to spill her own stories unless she got something in return, and this wasn’t the worst deal he’d ever locked himself into. “Make sure you drink that coffee now. Don’t want you dozing off on me.”

Raising her cup to her lips, Rhea took an intentionally loud sip as she glowered at him the whole time. Maybe he was lucky that she hadn’t decided to chuck the whole thing at him—not that it would have burned, anyways. When she returned the cup to its saucer, she had on an overly angelic smile. “I always find that it’s easier to stay awake when the narrator gets to the damn point and actually tells the story.”

_Touché, little missy, touché._

* * *

_After a handful of decidedly uncool minutes of gripping onto the armrests and closing his eyes, Axel dared to look again. Miraculously, they hadn’t crashed into the wall; hell, the wall wasn’t even _there_ anymore. Instead, they were back in the same dark world as before, and Roxas had flipped on the headlights, showing the bumps and shadows of the hills before them. He was still driving, too, as if he hadn’t just done something that could have ended their lives in a dangerous explosion._

Hey, you’re still alive. That’s one priority taken care of. Now get your head back in the game.

_“Hold up. Stop the car,” Axel said, trying to get his bearings. Roxas gave him a quizzical look from the corner of his eye. It wasn’t hard to tell his destination, as the castle in the distance was visible through the windshield. “Listen, are you trying to get us lost?”_

_“What’s there to get lost in?” Roxas asked, but he gently pumped the brakes anyways, bringing the rickety car to a stop. Axel was surprised it wasn’t making noises as it idled on the edge of the hill. Only once they weren’t moving anymore did Roxas take his hands from the wheel to gesture around them. “There’s literally nothing here ‘cept the castle and that other place you said was probably a town.”_ _The vaguely petulant tone in his voice all but screamed, _You said I could go to the castle once I’m ready.

We’ll go to the castle once I’m sure we can get home, kid.

_“The problem is that there is _literally_ nothing around to use as a landmark,” Axel said, laying his argument out. At Roxas’s confused look, he gestured out the back window, feeling silly for pointing at nothing. “I know you can see portals and stuff, and orange is a great color for picking out in the dark, but are you sure you’re gonna be able to see that thing once we get away from it?” _

_The sheepish look on Roxas’s face was answer enough. “Well, I usually don’t get too far away from these things, so…”_

_“Exactly.” Axel deftly flicked open the lock on the door before pulling the handle. The crispness of night air filtered into the dusty scent still permeating the car, and Axel disembarked into the grass. “Just gimme fifteen minutes to make sure we’re gonna have a way back home again, and then we can figure out if this old thing—” he tapped a fist against the top of the car “—can survive making it up that monster of a hill over there.”_

_“Okay,” Roxas said, shifting the car into park, “but only fifteen minutes, or I’ll leave you behind!”_

_Axel chuckled as he swung the car door shut. Kid sure had some spunk to him, even if he wasn’t serious about the threat. Even though Axel had given him approval to protect himself, Roxas still had a long way to go before he could handle tackling anything like a whole spooky-ass castle on his own._

So I just gotta make sure I handle this part of the job, first.

_Axel could understand Roxas’s reluctance to wait; he honestly hated the recon part of any operation, too. But it was a necessity to survival, so Axel got his head into the game and took stock of his surroundings. The castle in the distance was the first obvious landmark, perfectly silhouetted by the moon as it was. All it needed was some bats, and then they’d be in business. Axel had yet to encounter a world with vampires running around, and he would have felt confident in betting that this one would be the first._

_Then there was the glow of light further off in the distance. If he squinted hard enough, he could make out the vaguest of shapes that looked like buildings, but it was difficult to tell with the distance between. They’d have to get closer to figure out what it was, but Axel didn’t have any problem marking it down as some sort of town or settlement. It would be nice if they had a place to gather supplies, seeing as how Temperies was sorely lacking in that aspect, but there wasn’t any guarantee of it, either._

And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t hear the end of it from Roxas if I tried to go suggest we check it out…

_A short honk blurted out of the car, and Axel turned around to see Roxas leaning out the driver’s window. “Are you gonna take all day or what?” Roxas called with an impatience that was only about half joking._

_“Strictly speaking, it doesn’t look like this place _has_ daytime,” Axel called back, earning himself a fresh eyeroll. He grinned. “Gimme a minute, I’m just about done.”_

_It was quick work to estimate the distance to both of the nearby landmarks, as well as their relative distance to each other. It was unfortunate that there wasn’t anything convenient to tell where they’d entered—all the damn hills looked the friggin’ same in the darkness—but Axel solved that by fishing a spare knife from his pockets that he’d nicked off someone ages ago and tossing it into the ground with a satisfying _shunk_. With a little bit of magic, he was able to light a flare at the end of the handle to test it, then put the fire out once he was satisfied with the results._

_It wasn’t a perfect solution, since something or someone could come along and take the knife with them, but Axel was willing to bet people didn’t have much reason to wonder into the hills. Not to mention the silence around them was too deep for there to be any wildlife rustling around—plus the whole place almost felt dead. It was a shame how some worlds ended up…_

_Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket, Axel trudged back through the grass and slipped back into the car. “Alright, we have a checkpoint to head back to. We can get moving now.”_

_Roxas waited until Axel had clicked his seatbelt back into place before pressing the accelerator, and they were off. The uneven surfaces of the hills meant they couldn’t go at a breakneck speed, but the car chugged along at an impressive clip anyways. Axel enjoyed the breeze weaving through his hair and kept his eyes out for anything else potentially helpful, but only hills upon hills met them in the dark._

_All the way up to the structure that the castle sat on top of._

_It was unfair to call the thing a _hill_ with so many smaller ones around it. In fact, it didn’t look like a natural structure at all. Instead, it was if someone had plucked out a massive column of rock and dumped it onto the landscape for the sheer purpose of hosting an ominous building on the top. If that had been the goal, it certainly got the job done. Axel couldn’t even begin to guess how tall the thing must have been._

_Roxas wasn’t deterred, though, and he set about driving around the perimeter of the hunk of rock, trying to get a feel for the place. Once nearly twenty minutes had passed and Axel was starting to think the only way that they’d ever be able to reach the castle was to scale the damn rockface, a miracle discovery happened. There was a path spiraling up around the edge of the mountain, thankfully at least double the width of a two lane road. Roxas let out a short cheer of success and pulled up onto the ramp, the steady incline not too hard on the car as he started the drive up the counterclockwise spiral._

_There was more than enough space for them to drive close to the inner edge of the pathway (even Roxas deny that was safer than staying on the “right” side of the road), but all it took was a glance to tell just how ridiculously high off the ground they were after only a bit of driving. That distance grew worse the further they went up, the hills below losing distinction in the shadows. Axel was pretty sure it was in the running for the highest up he’d ever been—and even if it didn’t win first place, it would’ve been a _nasty_ fall all the way down._

_Thankfully the road stayed wide all the way up to the top, where suddenly there was a whole flat lawn with plenty of space for at least twenty cars to fit on, let alone their dinky vehicle. Looking the slightest bit shaken, Roxas pulled them as far from the edge and as close to the castle’s front door as he could before killing the ignition. If you stared straight forward, it was easy to forget how high up they were._

_“You doing oka—” Axel hadn’t even gotten half the question out before Roxas had flung the door open and leapt out of the car, as if the kid _hadn’t_ been looking nauseous about their little ascent as before. “Of course,” Axel said under his breath before getting out himself. “Rox, you’re not going in that place without your gear!”_

_But, unlike he’d guessed, Roxas wasn’t sprinting towards the entrance, but instead across the other end of the lawn. He waved at Axel, shouting across the space between them. “Axel! There’s another portal over here!”_

For real? _As usual, Axel couldn’t see anything of the sort, no matter how hard he squinted, but he was going to take Roxas for his word. Snatching Roxas’s gear bag from the back seat just in case, Axel sauntered over towards the blonde was standing._

_“It’s orange,” Roxas reported, once Axel was in reasonable speaking distance again. “It must go back to Temperies.”_

_“Well, it would’ve been nice if we’d gotten dropped off here instead, then,” Axel said dryly, waving his hand through the space Roxas had indicated. Sure enough, the sensation of worlds shifting buzzed over his skin, even though his magically resistant gloves. “We should probably test this thing, just in case it goes somewhere besides the place where you think it does.”_

_Roxas really was no good at glaring; he was no more intimidating than a slightly annoyed hamster. “I think I’d recognize what a portal back home looks like.” Funny how he was so defensive about a boring chunk of space like that._

_“And I’m just saying there’s a chance there’s some other world out there that’s orange, too.” There were a ton of worlds, and much more than there were colors that the human eye could distinguish. Who knew how accurate Roxas’s ability was? “I’d just rather not get stranded somewhere if I could help it.” It wouldn’t be _impossible_ to get back to Temperies, but it sure would be a bigger pain in the ass than necessary._

_“Okay, okay. I get you. But,” Roxas said, turning away from where Axel thought the portal was and pointing towards the castle doors, “we can test this thing _after_ we do what we came here to do.”_

_Up close, the building looked just as ominous as it did from a distance: dark stone made up the walls, with only the occasional wooden torch to light up the entrance, which was a door that seemed five times too big to be practical. Roxas didn’t seem deterred by it, however, his eyes lit up at the prospect of adventure. Axel felt a smirk curl his lips and offered the gear bag. “Come on, equip up.”_

_The two of them probably didn’t look like much of an attack force being one lanky redhead and a skinny blonde kid with a bokken, both dressed in dark hoodies, but that was part of the point. On the chance that there was someone waiting inside, it would be in their favor to look as inconspicuous as possible. With that thought in mind, Axel kept his chakrams sheathed in his magic and lead the party towards the door, Roxas close on his heels._

_The door opened up on its own without anything so much as touching it, which was just adding to the overall _creepy as hell_ factor. Roxas stalled for a few moments, staring slack jawed at what had just happened—and then his face lit up again in a bright grin. “Dibs on going in first!”_

_“Don’t run off on your own!” Axel said, but he wasn’t too far behind Roxas’s quick sprint. Axel took a moment to stick another knife in the door to jam it from closing all the way as a precaution, and then he really had to book it to catch up to Roxas, who had already managed to round a corner. Thankfully, the boy’s laughter made it easy to figure out where he was, even when he went out of sight. Axel found Roxas paused and examining every nook and cranny of the stone walls, as if he could find a secret passage by pulling the right torch. “Ever hear about not barging into strange buildings uninvited?”_

_“Come on, the door opened on its own. That’s totally an invitation.” Or quite possibly a trap. “Besides, can you blame me? I’ve never gotten the chance to see something like _this_ before.” He spread out his arms in a clear indication of the space around them. _

_No, Axel couldn’t blame him. There wouldn’t be anything like this on Temperies—not just in terms of architecture, but also in the vibe of the place. The air was different here, even compared to outside, and not just because of the difference between indoors and out. No, the castle had a vibe completely of its own, almost like stepping inside the door had been another portal and they hadn’t just realized it._

_Roxas was taking slow steps down the corridor, as if just realizing he wouldn’t be able to take everything in if he was hightailing it through the halls. “Though it’s kind of weird, though, right? There were lights on in the windows, but it doesn’t look like anyone lives here or is awake.” Axel had to agree. Places where people _stayed_ felt different. Not empty, not sterile. Even buildings with pure functional use had more life than the place before them. “What do you think this place is for?”_

_Axel opened his mouth to give a half-baked theory when the atmosphere shifted again, and all his nerves went on immediate high alert. Roxas seemed to sense it, too, though he wasn’t as sure what to do. Axel scanned over the area, looking for any sign of movement. And then he saw it lurking in a shadow._

_No, forming from the shadow into a creature. A small one, with a black body and bulbous yellow eyes._

_“Well now,” Axel said with a grin, even as Roxas yelped in surprise, “what’s a Heartless doing all the way out here?”_


	13. Act I, Scene XIII

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act I: 50 Minutes/Abandonment

Scene XIII: “You’re not the only one fighting this battle.”

* * *

_“What’s a Heart—Whoa!”_

_Roxas had only made it halfway through the question before letting out a surprised yelp. The Heartless had moved, rushing forward on its tiny little legs, claws extended in an attack. Roxas reacted on instinct, drawing his bokken and swinging it into the enemy with a surprisingly graceful form for the limited amount of practice he’d gotten. The Heartless bounced away from the impact, but it wasn’t near enough damage to take it out, and it was back on its feet in no time, heading back to the charge._

_Roxas’s follow up swings weren’t anywhere near as graceful nor as accurate. Luckily for him, Axel had also reacted on instinct—and his instinct was a lot more refined and a _lot_ more deadly._

_It didn’t even take two swings of his chakrams for the heartless to go down and vanish back into the shadows._

_Axel did another quick sweep of the area before deeming it safe enough to not stay in a ready attack stance. During the process, he caught sight of Roxas, who happened to look much better than most people did upon their first encounter with a Heartless._

Then again, most of the time, those things show up in groups, and then you know the world is fucked.

_So what did it mean when only one of them showed up? Axel didn’t have a ready answer—but it was usually a sure sign that the place was somewhere he was supposed to be. Or at least somewhere he could get away with being without looking forward to a lecture at the end of the line._

_Roxas sucked in a breath so deep that Axel was worried the kid was about to hyperventilate, except what came out next wasn’t a shuddering gasp, but a torrent of words._

_“That was so freakin’ cool, Axel! I know I’ve sparred against you before, but you almost moved like a completely different person. What was that thing anyways? You called it a Heartless, didn’t you? Is it supposed to be some sort of—”_

_Axel held up a hand, which surprisingly got the desired effect. “I can only answer so many things at a time, and you need to breathe. So let’s focus on that for a moment, alright?” Roxas nodded, making a show of counting his breaths out. “So, yes, I called that thing a Heartless. Long story short, it’s a monster that usually means there’s trouble floating about.” Sure, there was a lot more to it than that, but how much did Roxas really need to know at this point? It would just complicate things. “And while that was just one, you can bet there’s a lot more where that came from.”_

_It was supposed to be a warning, a reminder that Roxas couldn’t just run off on his own without potentially smacking headfirst into danger. And he seemed to understand that much, judging by the serious expression he took on. But that light and excitement for the idea of adventure hadn’t gone out of his eyes, which were looking bluer and more beautiful than before._

_Axel hated that he thought that was a good thing._

_Roxas adjusted his grip on his bokken, which had escaped from a collision with a Heartless fully intact. Impressive, in its own way. “I have the feeling I’m going to need a better weapon than this.”_

_“Maybe,” Axel said, rolling around the possibilities in his mind. Handing Roxas live steel didn’t sit well with him just yet, but neither did leaving the kid with only a half-stacked means of defense. “How about you get used to actual combat with live enemies first, and once I’m convinced you won’t accidentally cut your arm off, I’ll give you an upgrade.”_

_“Alright, I’ll hold you to it then!” With renewed vigor, Roxas gripped his bokken and faced forward once more. He didn’t run off on his own again, self-aware enough to recognize that he couldn’t fight a Heartless on his own, but that didn’t stop his intent to explore everything he could see. Axel stayed in immediate following distance as Roxas worked his way through every bend and turn in the hallways._

_That path happened to bring up more Heartless, though only one or two at a time, which gave Roxas plenty of opportunity to smack the things around and practice his technique while Axel knocked away whatever happened to come too close to him. Ultimately, when they came upon a stairway, there was a group of about five of the things, which took a bit longer to clear out, but wasn’t anything to sweat about._

It’s weird, though. I can’t sense anything that would attract these things here.

_“Can we keep going?” Roxas asked, standing as close to the stairwell as he could without actually starting to climb the things. The steps only went up, though that didn’t completely rule out the possibility of there being a basement level. “Maybe we’ll find someone if we go up?”_

_Axel strongly doubted that there would be anyone living in a place infested with Heartless (well, anyone friendly to guests at any rate), but he forced the frown off his face and nodded. “I dunno about that, but it’s worth a shot.” Plus it would give him an opportunity to investigate and potentially see if he could find something helpful. “We should keep track of time, though. I know you don’t have school tomorrow, but we don’t wanna be here for too long.”_

_Roxas pulled a face, as if exploring the world had completely banished any thoughts of Temperies from his mind, which wasn’t too far out of the question. “I know, I know. Let me have my adventure, will you?”_

_Chuckling a bit at the near whining tone in Roxas’s voice, Axel waved a hand up the stairs. “Then by all means, lead the way.”_

_That was all it took before the duo was off again, combing their way through the second floor at much of the same pace as the first. The Heartless continued to show up, their numbers steadily increasing with each encounter. There weren’t enough numbers to be concerning, but the gradual chance in the enemy could be dangerous. If they weren’t careful, they might not even notice they’d walked into a situation they couldn’t handle._

_But for the time being, things were fine. Axel himself had more than enough skill to make up for Roxas’s amateur state, and it genuinely wouldn’t have been difficult for the redhead to handle all the enemies himself. It was good practice, though, which was a bonus since Axel still didn’t have any idea _why_ the Heartless were in such a place, aside from the fact that it was dark and creepy._

There’s gotta be a purpose. Heartless always show up on worlds with a purpose, even if the things don’t know it.

_“Axel!”_

_Roxas’s shout pulled Axel from his thoughts, bringing the battle at hand into clarity. It was another large group, but the smaller Heartless weren’t on their own. Instead, there were a few red ones with hat-like shapes on their heads, floating off the ground. The entire coalition was before a stairwell—_number five? Six?—_blocking the way forward. _

_“What are those things?” Roxas asked. He was still holding his bokken high, and his blue eyes squinted at the emblem on the floating creature’s chest, which matched the ones on the rest of the familiar enemies. “Are they Heartless, too?”_

_“Yup,” Axel said casually, adjusting his hold on his chakrams. “They wield fire magic, so you’re gonna wanna be careful. That little bokken won’t stand up for too long, even though it’s reinforced.” Roxas looked at his wooden sword, frowning a bit. “Just leave those things to me, will ya? You keep practicing on the small fry.”_

_“Right!” _

_Axel didn’t wait for the enemies to make a move, launching himself forward towards the stairwells. The smaller Heartless reacted to his advance, but he swiped his weapons at whichever ones were in arms reach, knocking them out of the way of his footfalls. The little magic users seemed to recognize his intention and started to cast their spells, fireballs forming at their beck and call before launching through the air._

_Not bothering to block or deflect the strikes, Axel let the fire fizzle out against his jacket, both the protection spells and his own natural affinity whittling the heat down to the barest impact of warmth. With a deft strike, he split the first red Heartless down the middle, then rounded on the second before it could even start to cast another attack spell. He felled the third in another short span of time, brushing off the ash from the front of his jacket before disposing of the smaller black Heartless still scuttling to cause damage, their feet pattering against the stone floors._

_And, amidst that sound, the echo of wood clattering to the ground reverberated throughout the hall._

_A shout—of pain? Surprise? Of _what_—followed soon after._

_Axel whipped around, finding that several more Heartless had crawled up from the shadows. Roxas was in the middle of them, but his bokken was on the ground, several feet away. Axel quickly calculated his options, then settled for reaching into his magic, summoning his own flames, burning everything that was an enemy to the ground—but he only got partway through the spell._

_Because there was a shift in the world._

_Because there was a flash of light._

_Because, in Roxas’s hand, a new weapon had formed, one of gold and silver that was in the rough shape of a sword but had no edges to speak of._

Oh, _Axel thought, _this is what it feels like to see one in person.

_Roxas moved, swinging the keyblade down._

* * *

“Can you…tell me more about it?”

Axel had to pause, almost not recognizing Rhea’s voice. She normally wasn’t so hesitant when it came to asking about Roxas—demanding information, really—but something in her tone had changed. Though her voice had been quiet, there was still a light behind her eyes, though Axel couldn’t have said what emotion was burning there.

“I dunno if you’ve noticed, but ‘it’ is a pretty vague question.”

Rhea scowled and kicked at Axel’s shins underneath the table. He let her, barely feeling the impact even with her boots, glad that she still had a bit of fire in her. “The keyblade, jackass,” she said, the insult only carrying half as much bite as it would have were she serious. “Roxas…never really told me a lot about it. Just said that it was effective against Heartless and Nobodies and he was lucky he could use it.”

Axel nodded, using the lull in his story to drink from his coffee, the Fifty Minute Room keeping the mug at a comfortable temperature though it had been some time since he’d even touched it. _It’s not like he could tell you much, since I’m pretty sure he doesn’t fully get it._ “I mean, that’s about the gist of it. What makes you think I know anymore?”

“Because you taught Roxas how to fight, and you know way more about this than either of us do.” Rhea’s frown deepened. “I’m not stupid. I can tell that you haven’t even told me half of what you know. And you didn’t tell Roxas, either.”

_You are way too smart for your own good, girlie. _Axel put his cup back down and kept his smirk up in a show that he wasn’t ruffled by her accusations. “And your point is?” Rhea didn’t say anything, just continued to stare him down. “Like Roxas told you, the keyblade is special. It’s not just effective against Heartless and Nobodies, but all sorts of other things. You may have already guessed, but that thing way outclasses any other weapon you’re gonna find out there on any of the worlds. But only chosen people get to wield one.”

Based on the unimpressed look on Rhea’s face, she already knew that much. “Yeah, but what makes someone special enough for that?” Her hands twitched against her empty coffee cup, and Axel wondered if she’d ever dreamed of being like Roxas, someone on the frontlines rather than a support fighter. “I mean, Roxas is definitely special. Even I can tell that, but…”

“But what makes a keyblade wielder a keyblade wielder?” Rhea nodded, and Axel considered how much he could get away with saying. It didn’t really matter anymore, all things considered. He could spill all his dirty secrets to Rhea, and it wouldn’t make a difference in the slightest. But he tucked the impulse away for another time and shrugged. “They get picked out by the worlds, as far as I can tell. You can try and manipulate things as much as you want, but unless you’re the right one for the job, there’s no guaranteed way to put a keyblade in your hand.”

Rhea’s eyes narrowed into a far more dangerous slant than her usual glares, and Axel wondered if he’d picked the wrong buttons to push. But she didn’t lash out at him again or storm away, so she couldn’t be too upset. “Do you think it’s funny messing with me?”

“Loads. But that’s not why I’m doing this.” Axel raised a finger before Rhea could bite out a retort. “Look, I know you want to know more, but that’s not what’s going to help you right now. Or have you gone ahead and forgotten why you’re here?”

“Because you dragged me here. Or did you not memorize that?” Rhea leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. Though she tried to look tough for a moment, her eyes flickered away to stare at something on the closest wall. “You can just be upfront with me if you’re not going to bother letting me know anything. It would save us both a lot of trouble.”

_Yeah, that would be a lot easier if I actually knew how much I was going to tell you._

Axel let out another heavy sigh. “Look, I’ll be frank. I don’t know what good it’ll do to get you into this mess. There’s a lot going on outside of the couple of worlds you’ve been on.”

“Like Radiant Garden and the other worlds that have disappeared?” Axel couldn’t hold back his grimace. _Where the hell did she hear that from?_ Rhea latched onto his discomfort with a vengeance, leaning forward. “Are you part of all that? Is Roxas, too?”

“Roxas doesn’t know a damn thing about this,” Axel said, because it was the only thing that came to mind that wasn’t an outright lie. He hoped Rhea wouldn’t catch the loophole in that statement: that just because Roxas didn’t _know_ didn’t mean he wasn’t part of it. “I’ve been telling you about what happened. That we came across each other by chance and that I decided to go along with him and check out the Castle.”

Rhea nodded slowly, but her eyes were still tracing over Axel’s face, as if she could find an obvious tell. Unfortunately for her, he was pretty confident in his skills of keeping secrets. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you weren’t planning something else at the same time. I mean, you’re way more prepared for any of this fighting Heartless and Nobodies junk than Roxas or I ever were.”

“Funny how having your world destroyed will do that do you,” he said, spitting out the words. Rhea backed up a bit, her expression becoming sympathetic. Axel forced himself to calm down before continuing. “Listen, I went through a lot before I landed on Temperies. But none of that matters now, because I just want to get Roxas back and _fix _things—”

“Because he’s important to your plan?”

“Because he’s important to _me_,” he said, the rawness of the words surprising even him. “You get it, don’t you? Being a keyblade wielder isn’t the only thing that makes him special. Roxas is a good guy and he deserves…” _Deserves the world, deserves not to get caught up in this bullshit, deserves something better— _“Deserves at least to get his memories back, since I’m the one who pulled him into this mess.”

“I think you’re severely underestimating Roxas’s stubbornness if you think he wouldn’t have wandered into that castle without you helping him,” Rhea said dryly, but the tone didn’t hold in her voice. She raised her hand for a moment, then dropped it back down to the table. “But you’re right. Roxas does deserve better, even if he was rude. Because that’s…not really how he is.”

In that moment, Axel was sure they were both thinking about the same things. About Roxas’s smile, his laugh, his kindness, his _light_, the way he lit up the world. Both Axel and Rhea had experienced those things and lost them, because of an unfair battle in a place that didn’t need to exist.

_At this point, I don’t care what was actually at the top of that castle. But I think the way to save Roxas might be up there. And if I go with her…_

He contemplated Rhea for a long time, the girl sitting across from him, nowhere near as broken as she had been when she’d first ended up on the street in the rain. There were still fractures, sure, but the pieces weren’t as scattered as they had been before. Even when he hadn’t been paying attention, she’d still been putting herself back together, piece by piece.

_It would probably be selfish for me to bring someone else into this, but if she volunteered, then…_

“Rhea.” She looked up at her name, suddenly rapt at attention. “If I said that I was going to make sure that I got Roxas back, no matter what—”

“Of course I’d come with you,” she said without hesitation. In fact, she looked annoyed that he’d even bothered to pose it as a question. “I want Roxas back, too, even if I haven’t known him as long as you have. I may not be able to fight as good as you two, but I’m pretty confident in my capabilities as a decoy.” Her lips curled up into a smile, with a ferocity that Axel hadn’t realized Rhea had. “Besides, if you told me no, I’d still find a way to come along.

“You’re not the only one fighting this battle, Axel.”

_Well, if you’re gonna put it like that._

“Alright, so let’s fight together,” he said, offering Rhea a hand over the table. She paused for a moment, then accepted the handshake, her grip surprisingly firm for how small her fingers were. “If you feel up to it, we can start preparing ourselves for what’s gonna come next.”

Rhea didn’t hesitate to nod. “I’m ready.”

Axel chuckled, surprised that he believed her bravado. “Alright. Then after we get some rest, we’ll head back to Temperies.”

* * *

“The Mark of Relationship—”

“Has formed, yes.”

“It’s a small one.”

“It will be enough…because it’s only one link of a larger puzzle.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. And she can’t find what else she needs here.”

“So let’s send them off, together.”

_To the next stage beyond this one._


	14. Act II, Scene I

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act II: School Life/Loneliness

Scene I: “It’s not just me, and it’s not just you.”

* * *

“You should know by now not to bother me while I’m working.”

“Yeah, well this is the last time I’m going to bother you for a while, so I figured you could make an exception.”

That was enough to make Zexion pause, and Rhea shoved her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie as she watched him think. She could practically hear the gears racing in his mind as he turned to face her, his visible aqua eye flashing for a moment in recognition of what she was saying.

“You’re going back to your world,” he said, surprisingly closing his tome shut without so much as marking his spot, letting it rest on the library table. “Does that mean you found the answer you came here to look for?”

Rhea thought over the question, pursing her lips together. Considering that she hadn’t really planned on coming to the Fifty Minute Room in the first place, she couldn’t say she’d been looking for anything in particular when she’d arrived. But, though she hadn’t come with a purpose of her own, she’d found something to help her move forward, so that was close enough.

“I know what I’m going to do when I get back,” she said. Or least what the goal was: get Roxas back. The exact steps to get that far were kind of fuzzy, but she was going to trust that Axel had at least a vague idea of what to do next. “So I figured that I’d do better back in Temperies than just sitting around here.” She made herself smile and rapped Zexion’s arm. “I thought you’d be grateful. I won’t be there to interrupt your research anymore.”

Zexion’s faint smirk was a welcome response. “It’ll be a welcome change, I suppose.” He brushed his bangs aside, though they fell right back into place. “Though if I wanted to avoid you, there would be easier ways to do it.”

He wasn’t wrong; Rhea found that the Fifty Minute Room was rather kind when it came to letting you not encounter those you weren’t in the mood to put up with. Too bad the real world wasn’t that easy. “Is that your way of saying you’ll miss me when I’m gone?”

“I’d much rather you have a good time where you’re supposed to be than holing up in here all the time,” Zexion said, his voice sounding sober. Rhea remembered once again that Zexion’s home world was gone; she’d just never considered that maybe he came to the Fifty Minute Room for more than just research. “But I have a strong feeling this won’t be the last that we see of each other.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because you don’t know how to stay out of trouble, for starters.”

Rhea raised an eyebrow. “And the reasons that come after that?”

Zexion chuckled. “Nothing of importance.” Rhea couldn’t think of what he meant, but a clever retort wasn’t coming to mind, either. Plus she didn’t have the time to argue; Axel was expecting her to meet up with him soon. She’d taken the detour to say goodbye to Zexion on impulse. “But regardless of what the future holds, you’ll be leaving for the present. In that case, I’ll bid you farewell with good wishes for your future.”

“Is there a spell for that sort of thing?”

“For good luck?” Rhea hummed as she nodded. Good luck sounded like something she might need a lot of in the near future. “There are, but they tend to be short term enchantments. Spur of the moment spells. However… Hold out your hands.” Taken by surprise, Rhea had put out her palms before she could even think about it. Zexion reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he passed on to Rhea before she could get a look at it. “Sometimes you can enchant an item for an effect.”

With Zexion’s hands pulled back, Rhea held up the plain golden medallion she now held, squinting at it, even though she had no idea how to appraise if the metal was real or not. “I never took you for one to try and cheat fate.”

“It was an experiment,” Zexion said by way of explanation (or defense, perhaps). “Every now and then, I try out a small side project to give myself space to think over my larger goals. That was an amusing distraction, but I don’t have much more need for it.” _Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why you have it on you now,_ Rhea thought with a faint smile. She didn’t retort, letting him pretend he was getting rid of his junk rather than imparting a gift. “Besides, some would say that luck is more about the perceived view of an object rather than any real sort of magic.”

“Does that really mean it’s not magic, though?” Rhea looked over the medallion one more time, giving it a faint squeeze before pocketing it into her jeans.

Zexion hummed. “An interesting hypothesis, I suppose.” Rhea shrugged in response, not caring whether or not he was taking the idea seriously or not. It was nice to get a gift from someone else, anyways—the mark of a new friendship. “But regardless, you shouldn’t linger here too long. The more you wait, the harder it’ll be to go back to where you’ve come from.”

Rhea paused for a moment. “I thought that was the whole point of the Fifty Minute Room. That it doesn’t matter how long you’re here, because the same amount of time will have passed outside regardless.”

“Yes, but that’s part of what makes it such a challenge to return.” Zexion turned back to his book, then waved his hand. “Off with you, now. You have someone waiting to go back with you. Don’t hold him up, too.” Before he completely engrossed himself back in his reading, Zexion’s smile almost looked sad. That was enough to distract Rhea as she gave him a quick farewell and headed out of the library and towards the entrance.

By the time she caught the meaning in his words, it was too late for her to ask how Zexion knew she and Axel were leaving together—let alone that they were heading to the same place.

* * *

“Do you have everything you need to go back home, dear?” Madam asked, patting Rhea on the shoulders like a doting parent worrying about her first grader forgetting their lunch when going on a field trip. “Naturally, we’ll keep anything you leave behind safe, but I just want to make sure you’re good to go.”

“I’m fine,” Rhea said for what felt like the twentieth time. She didn’t mind, though. With everything she’d been working on processing, it was nice to have someone so care so much about her wellbeing. Zexion was probably right in that, once you got so accustomed to a space that tended to your every need without even needing to ask, it would be much harder to adjust back to reality, no matter what the world you lived on was like. “I didn’t come here with much, so it’s not like there was a lot for me to forget.”

True enough, she’d hardly been carrying any personal affects when she came in. Rhea had been wearing her hoodie for almost the entire time after it had gone through the laundry, and she’d found the rest of the outfit she’d been wearing on arrival waiting for her, nearly folded up on the dresser in her temporary room. Other than that, her phone was tucked in her pocket, right next to Zexion’s good luck medallion. If it weren’t for the fact that she’d left her daggers in Roxas’s car, Rhea could easily head back into the Castle as she was.

“Just checking, dear.” Madam gave Rhea one more pat on the shoulders before stepping back. “Of course, you’re more than welcome to come back whenever you like, but I’m sure you don’t want to spend a whole trip on something silly.”

Rhea smiled, hoping it was reassuring. “Well I’ll be sure to come back if I need it.” Yes, she felt better, and she hoped she wouldn’t encounter another emotional blow, but she wouldn’t mind visiting once more if it meant that she could maybe chat with Zexion again. Besides, Madam’s indistinguishable face brightened up at the mention. “Thank you for all your help while I was here.”

“No need to thank us. I’m just glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay.” Madam swept her hand through the air, gesturing towards the door. “Shall we go, then?”

The Fifty Minute Room had shifted so much since Rhea had arrived that she almost didn’t recognize the entryway when she walked into it. Gone were the pure white fixings, instead replaced with the tender tan and brown colors of the school. Though it had changed because of the presumed comfort algorithms of the place, it also served as a reminder that she’d be returning back to her regular life, the regular routine. Not wanting to worry Madam, she repressed her grimace as she stepped through the door.

It helped that Axel was coming back with her. He was waiting in the entryway, also adorned in his black and silver hoodie. Though she didn’t clearly remember what else he’d been wearing when they’d first met, he looked just the right amount of messy to be considered cool. Sir was there with him, presumably giving a similar set of farewells that Madam had.

“Well look who’s decided to join us,” Axel said once he noticed Rhea. She raised her hand in a wave and crossed over to him, hands shoved in her pockets. “What, did you sleep in on me? I would’ve thought you’d gotten enough rest with how long you’ve been in there.”

Recognizing that he was just giving her shit for the hell of it, Rhea only stuck her tongue out at him. “I didn’t recall you setting a time for this meeting. Or did you forget to memorize that?”

Axel chuckled and gently whacked Rhea’s shoulder a few times. “Just making sure you’re ready to go. It can be a little weird to head back from your first trip through, especially since you’ve been here for quite a bit of time.”

Rhea shrugged. “It all adds up to fifty minutes in the end, right?” She’d actually been trying _not_ to think about it, since it just seemed like another unnecessary problem on top of everything else she was dealing with, but it was about to be a very real situation, though she hadn’t fully ruled out the possibility that the whole thing had been a strange dream.

_Well, we’ll just have to adapt. It doesn’t really add up to the weirdest thing I’ve experienced. I think._

Axel gave her a quick glance. “If you insist. Not like you gotta put up with it by yourself.” That was a benefit. Seemingly satisfied, Axel stepped forward. “Alright, Sir, Madam, it looks like we’re ready to head out.”

The couple smiled, with Sir opening the next door for them as Madam waved Rhea and Axel through. “_Thank you for your patronage._”

Rhea dipped her head in a quick bow of thanks before following after Axel. The same car from the day Rhea had first dialed the number was waiting for them, though, no matter how she tried, she couldn’t see beyond the vehicle, as if the space didn’t exist. She was grateful for the opportunity to focus on the front seat window rolling down, since that didn’t give her as much of a headache.

Dew was sitting in the driver’s seat once again, looking as well put together as always. “We will be departing the Fifty Minute Room shortly.” At her words, the passenger door opened on its own. “Please make yourselves comfortable. I’ll set out for your points of origin once you’re ready.”

The delayed thought of how fucking weird the whole place was sprang back into Rhea’s mind, but she didn’t have time to voice any concerns as Axel pulled open the door and hopped in without a second thought. Remembering Dew’s frustration over Rhea’s indecision the first time, Rhea slipped inside, too. Axel had already spread himself out on one of the wide seats, and Rhea plopped herself down across from him. The door shut on its own the second she did, followed by the sound of the window to the front sliding open.

“We’ll now be departing. I’ll let you know when we arrive at your respective destinations.”

The window clicked shut again, separating them from Dew, but Rhea still looked towards the front of the car regardless. “Does she always say the same things over and over again?” she asked.

Axel let out a faint snort. “She’s just trying to impress you because you’re new. You’ll see her lighten up a bit when you come back. Well, if you decide to come back.”

Rhea tried to imagine a less mechanical sounding Dew, but she didn’t get very far. “Do people who come here come a lot?” Axel opened his mouth, though it took words didn’t come out right away. He looked faintly uncomfortable at the question. Rhea raised an eyebrow. “Do _you_ come here a lot?”

“Sometimes. To collect my thoughts.” Rhea got the impression that Axel wasn’t being entirely truthful, but decided it wasn’t worth the pestering. It wasn’t really her business if he spent a ton of time lingering in some weird world removed from the usual space-time continuum. _But what if I end up like that, too? What if I’m not really as okay as I think I feel?_ “But it doesn’t do you any good to think about that place when you’re out. We’ve got bigger fish to fry, don’t we?”

“Right. Roxas.” They hadn’t done much planning before heading off to get some rest before leaving, but they had at least agreed on handling things back in Temperies. “It probably isn’t going to be me any good to try and talk to him when we get back, is it? He’s still going to be pissed after we fought.”

“Yeah, probably. He hasn’t had as much time to process as you did.” Axel tried to sound casual, but there was still a flash of pity in his eyes. Rhea couldn’t even get upset, seeing as he knew exactly what she was going through. “But that’s why it’s better to head back. No matter how much we plan in there, it’s still only gonna be fifty minutes back in Temperies.”

Rhea nodded, even though the whole idea still sounded ridiculous. “So I’ll just go through life like I usually do. For the most part, anyways.” She’d have to cut out all the parts that she’d usually spend with Roxas. Though it would be the same as back in the town with no name, and she should have been used to it, Rhea still didn’t like the idea. “And what are you gonna do? Float around on the sidelines? Camp out at the Castle?”

“I don’t know if you guessed already, but I’m not exactly patient.” Axel tapped at his temple. “I’d rather stay close enough to help out if there’s trouble. And if I’m out in the open, it’ll make it easier to memorize what’s going on.”

_Yeah, and it’ll make it easier for you to make Roxas throw another fit when he sees you._ But Rhea knew if their roles were reversed and Axel tried to tell her to sit back and wait for him to take care of things, she definitely wouldn’t have agreed. “What, you gonna sneak into classes with me? No offense, but you don’t quite look the age.”

Axel slapped a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Are you calling me _old_?” With one more huff, he settled back down. “I dunno what age you think I am, but I’m closer to you guys than you think. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t done this before.”

That got Rhea’s eyebrows to pop up. “I have a feeling I would have noticed if you were slinking around the school. You would’ve stood out with those looks of yours.” His towering height combined with the spikes of his bright red hair was enough to draw attention anywhere, let alone in sleepy Temperies.

“You mean because I’m so fabulous?” Practically preening, Axel ran a hand through his hair, and Rhea simply shook her head. “Look, you don’t need to worry about me. Just worry about you. We can fuss over each other when shit really starts to hit the fan.”

“Your use of _when_ over _if_ is super motivating, thanks,” Rhea drawled before leaning her head back on the comfortable seat behind her. Whenever she tried to glance out the window, the glass was too tinted for her to see anything beyond it. It was probably more void, anyways. “Do you really think we can fix this mess, though? I thought this was just my mistake, but after hearing you talk about your time with Roxas…it just feels like way more than something I can handle.”

She expected another smart remark from Axel, but it never came. Instead, his face settled on a genuinely serious expression. “Look, I won’t say that this _is_ something more than you can handle. Hell, it’s probably something more than _I_ can handle. But,” he said, holding up a finger to stop Rhea’s retort, “it’s not just me, and it’s not just you. It’s _both_ of us. So if nothing else, we’re gonna struggle together, and, if we’re lucky, by the end of the day we’ll make a difference.”

Paying no heed to the atmosphere, the window to the front seat clicked open. “We’ve arrived at our first point of origin. Ms. Rhea, please exit with care.”

“Well look at that, looks like you technically got picked up first,” Axel said with a chuckle. When Rhea looked at him wide-eyed, he waved her towards the door. “Go ahead, it’ll just be like getting out of a normal car, I promise.”

“I—What—” Rhea swallowed her stammering. “We’re not going together?”

“Technically we can’t. We’d mess up time that way.” Rhea still stared, unmoving towards the door. “Look, it’s complicated. But once you go, I’ll be next, and we’ll pop out at roughly the same time, anyways. I’ll be there before you know it.”

Knowing that arguing would be no use against Axel or Dew, Rhea swallowed her complaints and stood up, working her way towards the door. She tried not to, but she ended up casting a questioning glance behind her. Axel was smiling, as if he knew she’d need the reassurance. Not liking the feeling of being pitied, Rhea harrumphed to herself, faced the door, and reached for the handle.

Closing her eyes, she opened the door.


	15. Act II, Scene II

**50**

By: Aviantei

Act II: School Life/Loneliness

Scene II: “Were you _not_ going to invite me in to talk things over?”

* * *

Rhea had stepped out of Roxas’s car more than enough times that she knew what it was supposed to feel like, and getting out of Dew’s vehicle was _nothing_ like that. Sure, the logistics of it were the same: open the door, shift your foot to the ground, stand up, and make sure not to hit your head on the doorway on the way out—but none of that accounted for the sensation of her stomach dropping out and surfacing up her throat and losing her balance. Rhea reached back to try and steady herself on the car door, but it was already gone, and she flailed around a bit before landing on her ass on the wet sidewalk.

_Oh, yeah. It rained before we left._

_That _was a surreal concept in of itself, and Rhea still hadn’t processed that it had happened, especially since she’d spent the mental equivalent of several days in another dimension. It seemed extra impossible that she’d only been gone for fifty minutes, but when she took a moment to find her phone, it was in her hand, and the call that she’d started was still ongoing, the seconds ticking past the fifty-minute mark.

_I guess the magic actually worked, then?_ For all the rest that Rhea had gotten, she didn’t have the patience to even try to break apart the theory, and, even if she did, stuff like that was best left to people like Zexion. All she had to worry about was adjusting back to normalcy after being disconnected from it for so long.

“Have a bit of a rough landing?”

Though he hadn’t been around a few moments ago, Axel stood on the sidewalk next to Rhea, apparently spared from the same lack of coordination as she had. He smiled and offered out a gloved hand in a gesture of camaraderie, and Rhea accepted the help up. The feel of the leather was familiar, but the size and shape of the hand encased inside were all wrong. “Are you telling me that you didn’t go ahead and fall on your ass the first time that you got back from that place?”

“Oh, sure, I lost my _balance_, but I didn’t trip over myself.” Rhea scowled, jerking her hand away the moment she could. “Then again, I had way more experience with hopping through worlds and portals and stuff. It’s kind of similar when you get down to it.”

Since the closest thing that Rhea had for a reference point to world jumping was riding along with Roxas—where he had complete control of the situation and she hadn’t needed to move until the car was parked—she couldn’t even call Axel out if he was bullshitting her. “Well, either way, we’re back in Temperies. That’s one step done. What comes next?”

“Well, we’re gonna need to get back to the school first. Roxas may be angry, but he’s not the type to go ahead and skip out on school. It’ll be better for you to head back, too.” Rhea grimaced at the idea of being in the same vicinity as Roxas, though a pang through her chest let her know that she still wanted to be around him, no matter how much it would hurt to have her ignore him. “Look, I know it sucks. But we can better keep an eye on when he goes back to the Castle this way. I mean, I can go ahead and keep an eye on things myself if you want, but two sets of eyes are better than one, you know.”

“Yeah, don’t worry; I get it.” Rhea had been through plenty of pain before, without it ever seeming like there was a chance for things to get better. Putting up with Roxas being openly antagonistic for a bit until they figured out how to get his missing memory back would be more than worth it. Rhea did her best to give Axel a smirk. “Besides, I dunno if I trust you with handling things on your own. Better stick around to keep an eye on you.”

“_Ouch_, you don’t pull any punches, do ya?” Rhea shrugged, but Axel’s expression was easing back into a grin, and she found that she liked that a whole lot better. “Well, you’re better off with some fight in you. Let’s get that energy into something productive and start on headed back, yeah?”

Rhea nodded, looking around the street. She hadn’t noticed any sort of car when Axel had shown up the first time, and Dew’s vehicle clearly wasn’t going to be of any use to them. “Your magic doesn’t happen to include giving us an easy way back to the school, does it?”

“Sorry, I’m more of a combatant.”

A sigh built up in Rhea’s throat, but she forced it back down. She had much better uses for her breath, anyways. “Alight, hotshot. Go ahead and lead the way.”

* * *

Standing in the doorway of her dorm room, Rhea frowned to herself.

Sure, her dorm wasn’t anything fancy. Much like a lot of other things about Temperies, the student rooms were rather basic, and Rhea had the essentials: a bed, a dresser, and a desk. However, since there wasn’t anything close to real shopping centers around, it wasn’t like she had much to customize it with, especially since she hadn’t brought anything along with her from her home world. None of that, though, was why she felt so torn.

“You just gonna stand there in the doorway the whole time? Castle crawling experience or no, I figured that after that walk all the way back you’d want to at least sit down and rest a bit.”

“That’s kind of hard when someone’s taking up all sorts of space on my bed right now.”

Sure enough, Axel had reclined back on Rhea’s bed without any hesitation, his dark hoodie appearing like a stain against the bright colored blankets. Even worse, he looked like he _belonged_ there, despite Rhea’s concerns about his older appearance. If she didn’t know any better, Rhea would have said that she had walked into the wrong dorm room by mistake.

_But nope, my key worked on the door, so this is definitely my place._ Axel was just blinking at her with an innocent expression that he could pull off way too well, and Rhea scowled, propping a hand on her hip. “I don’t even recall inviting you in.”

Axel quirked at eyebrow at her. “Were you _not_ going to invite me in to talk things over?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“I don’t see the problem. I took off my boots and everything.” Rhea rolled her eyes to the ceiling, let the door fall shut behind her, and tossed her key onto her desk with a series of jangles. It wasn’t like Temperies had any sort of real rules about curfews and who was allowed in whose rooms when, anyways. Dropping into her desk chair, Rhea started to work on loosening her own boots’ laces. “Don’t look so down. I figured you’d at least want a bit of company. Am I wrong?”

That was the frustrating part—he _wasn’t_ wrong. In the short amount of time they’d known each other, he’d gotten a pretty good read on her. Rhea felt like she only _half_ grasped Axel, and even then, that connection was shaky. _He cares for Roxas, though. That’s what really matters._ So she hummed and kept the most deadpan tone she could muster in her voice. “If I tell you that you’re annoying, will you be sure to memorize that?”

“Trust me,” Axel said, tapping at his temple, “I memorize everything important.” Rhea rolled her eyes, nudging her boots into their corner by the door as best she could without getting back up. For someone that had spent probably the equivalent of a week lounging around, she sure wanted to do nothing but sit forever. Axel pulled himself up into a sit, hands resting in the middle of his crossed legs. “So, what can I do ya for? More story time? Or were you planning on sharing something good for once?”

“No. No story time.” Already her head felt loaded with everything she’d learned in such a short period of time. Knowing that the next day she’d have to face Roxas in some way shape or form, the thought of hearing about a past when he was happy hurt too much. She covered up the hurt with sarcasm. “You don’t have anything else interesting to talk about?”

Axel’s grin only stretched out wider. “Sure I do. Doesn’t mean that I’m offering.” Rhea huffed, regretting not kicking Axel off the bed. She’d at least have a pillow to toss at him, then. Chuckling at her reaction, Axel held up his hands in surrender. “I’m kidding. Let’s talk about practical stuff. How would you say you are when it comes to combat?”

Rhea stared straight on at him, even though her instinct wanted to look away. “I don’t mean to disappoint you, but I’m nothing more than a glorified distraction.” There wasn’t any way she could have made it as far into the castle as she had without Roxas there—and even then, it was his ability that kept her alive. “I’m not like you. I couldn’t just…climb all the way up forty-plus floors on my own.” Given past experience, she’d barely make it up two. Maybe with her daggers, three, tops.

_Not that I have the things anymore. I unpacked them in Roxas’s car, like a dumbass._

She didn’t even want to think about asking for them back. _Hey, I know you hate my guts now, but could I maybe have my weapons back? Y’know, the ones you leant me?_ She’d rather head back into the Castle emptyhanded than attempt that.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a distraction.” Rhea looked to Axel, giving him the most disbelieving expression she could muster. “What? I’m being serious. One extra body for the enemy to keep an eye on can do a lot when you’re in a fight, even if you’re not a damage dealer. Besides, it’s way better for you to know what your limits are than to run off into something you can’t handle. If you’re not a combatant, you’re not a combatant.”

Rhea crossed her arms, bouncing her knee despite the faint whine of her muscles from taking a big walk after so little physical activity. “You can try to make it sound great all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not even useful enough to be a healer. I’m pretty sure if…Roxas wasn’t so nice, he would have told me I was in the way a long time ago.” She certainly had been the first times she’d gone with him, taking more damage from the enemies than was useful for Roxas to fight.

“Well if you’re worried about being in the way, all you gotta do is practice until you get better.” Rhea prepared herself to start lecturing Axel about the right timing to make a joke, but when she studied his expression, it was serious. “Come on, have a little faith in yourself. You wouldn’t have survived in the Castle this long if you weren’t at least halfway decent at your role.”

“Again: you do realize Roxas was carrying my ass, right?”

“Yeah, and Roxas is an okay fighter, and the Keyblade definitely helps, but he’s still an amateur in terms of experience.” On instinct, Rhea went to protest—but then she realized that Axel had been the one to teach Roxas to fight, so he was way more qualified than she was to judge. Rhea was even more of an amateur than Roxas. Axel shifted, so he was no longer sprawled out on the bed, but instead sitting on the edge, his feet planted on the floor. “You’re at least skilled enough to survive alongside someone who’s by no means an expert at fighting, and that’s with your limited skillset. What I want to know is do you wanna get better or not?”

It didn’t take long for Rhea to get the implication—she’d been hanging on to every word of Axel’s recounting of his time with Roxas. “Do you honestly think you can train me enough to make me worth something?”

“Oh, sweetheart, you obviously don’t know what you’re saying. That sounded like a challenge to me.” It wasn’t the first time she’d seen it, but Axel’s grin looked more like a feral exposure of teeth than anything joyful, sending a shiver down Rhea’s spine that she refused to let show. Axel stood moments later, his ridiculous height seeming like his head could collide with the ceiling if he just stopped slouching so much. “I’ve been through my fair share of stuff, missy. I may not be some uber-talented all-rounder, but I’ll be damned if I don’t know how to put up a fight.”

Rhea settled into a deadpan expression and tilted her chair back so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck so much to look at him. “Why are you so insistent on thinking I’m _not_ going to be a nuisance to you?”

“Why are you so insistent that you _will_ be?” Rhea didn’t have a ready response that didn’t sound pathetic, so she pursed her lips and glared. Axel didn’t back down, letting out a sigh as he crouched to be at eye level with her. “Look, I know stuff happened that wasn’t great. But before that, Roxas trusted you to have his back while he fought. So I’m gonna trust that judgement, too.” Bringing up Roxas was unfair, and Axel knew it, and that was probably why he’d done it. “Now, back to my first question: Do you want to get better or not? Because I’m pretty sure I can cover us both, but I have no problems helping you out if you want it.”

Axel extended his hand, and Rhea stared at it with the same sort of disinterest one had for a dead animal on the side of the road. Though there wasn’t any need for them, Axel hadn’t ditched his dark gloves, the leather catching the light. For all his joking, Rhea knew he was serious in the offer—and given that he’d taught Roxas from scratch, Axel could probably make Rhea at least halfway decent, even with her crummy skillset. It wasn’t a matter of doubting his capability.

It was always a matter of doubting herself.

_And yet, back then, I—_

“If you’re gonna leave me hanging, I’d appreciate it if you make that obvious so I’m not standing around like a dumbass.”

“Sorry to inform you that me shaking your hand isn’t going to change that much.” Though it would have been better for her to let all the feelings out in a rush, it was just _easier _to push things down and retort with sarcasm. Rhea shrugged, standing up so she could at least take away some of the height advantage Axel had on her. “But if you’re so convinced, I’ll take some pity on you and help out.”

Rather than taking the handshake, Rhea smacked her palm against Axel’s as fast as she could. He blinked for a moment—before a fiery grin stretched across his face. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” he said. “You better not try and say that it doesn’t count as binding just because you didn’t shake it. I’m gonna take that as your agreement. You got it memorized?”

“Why bother memorizing it whenever I’m sure you won’t let me forget?” The sting of the partial high five still simmered over her palm, and Rhea shoved her fist into a pocket to still it and met Axel’s gaze with one of her own. “You just better not go complaining whenever you realize I’m a lost cause. I definitely warned you.”

“Yes, yes, you don’t have any experience, yadda, yadda. I think I’m going to be the judge of that.”

“Suit yourself.”

And for the first time in a while, Rhea thought she might be alright.

* * *

_When Roxas had said that he’d be taking her somewhere else, Rhea hadn’t expected it to be a whole other world. She had still been trying to get over the experience of being in a vehicle—the town with no name didn’t have much use for the things, considering how small it was—and then everything had seemed to _lurch_, and she’d had to blink for the sudden spots in her eyes._

_Having grown up in nothing but the dark, she almost didn’t know how to process the natural light, even if it had a gray sheen of clouds covering it. Behind the wheel of the car, Roxas kept driving as if the shift was nothing for him, but Rhea stared, fascinated by the paved roads, the concrete sidewalks, the brown and gray buildings._

_“This is Temperies,” Roxas was saying, with a casual lilt in his voice that conveyed his familiarity with the place. “It’s really not the most exciting place, I won’t lie. But it’s still good base to come back to, rather than staying in your world—um, no offense?”_

_“Don’t worry about it,” Rhea said, not even remotely offended. She hadn’t wanted to stay in the town with no name, anyways, and it wasn’t like there was anywhere else in that world that was worth going to. Still, she felt awkward, and she shifted under the seatbelt Roxas had hooked into place for her before they’d left. “Um, is that why you go to the Castle? Because there’s nothing to do here.”_

_Roxas let out a nervous laugh. “Would you think less of me if I said it was?” Rhea shook her head. She didn’t think it was so bad a reason after all. Better than hers, at any rate. “I mean, it’s not all that. Whenever I go there, I can’t shake the feeling that something is calling me to the top. But I wouldn’t be lying if I said that it’s nice to go and do something else for a bit. Especially since I’ve been in _this_ world for as long as I can remember.”_

_“So anywhere else is better—even without a castle to explore and monsters to fight.” Rhea understood. Though she’d just thought they were fairy tales as a kid, she’d always liked the idea of going somewhere else other than the town with no name. Rhea let out a wistful sigh and leaned her head against the window, watching the empty streets pass by. “I wish I could do what you do, Roxas.”_

_“Well why not?”_

_The question didn’t feel like a real question—wasn’t the answer to that obvious enough?—but Roxas was earnest. Rhea could tell that much from the little conversation we already had. “Come on, I know I’m not a hero. I don’t even know how to fight or anything.”_

_“I didn’t know how to fight before I learned! Besides, if you want to, that’s more than reason enough to do it.”_

_“Okay, sure, but it’s not like I can just snap my fingers and do it.” Rhea watched Roxas, but he didn’t look convinced. “You’re acting pretty confident about someone you just met.”_

_“I have a gut feeling, though, Rhea,” Roxas said. “I think you could definitely do it. If you wanna try something new, you should go for it! I mean, you’ll never know until you give it a shot. Besides—I’d really like it if we could fight side by side, y’know?”_

_The offer almost stole her breath from her. The last time she’d had friends, they weren’t the type to encourage anyone to reach outside the norm. Hell, they’d spread around Rhea’s silly little dreams and laughed about them. But Roxas wasn’t like that, Roxas _was_ someone who hopped between worlds and explored new places, and he was saying that Rhea could come with him. The image of them working together in battle was enough to make her heart soar in excitement for a future completely different than the one she’d imagined for herself a few scant hours ago._

_“I’d like that, too,” she said, not caring that her voice had gone weak and that a fresh round of tears was beginning to spill out of her eyes again. Roxas slowed the car and glanced to her, worried. “I’ll be in your care. But if you think I can do it, Roxas, then you’re right. There’s absolutely no reason I can’t at least give it a shot.”_

_“That’s the spirit,” Roxas said, offering a fist. It took a moment for Rhea to recognize the gesture, but then she raised her own shaky hand to bump their knuckles together._

_It was her first fist bump, and it felt like hope._


End file.
